■ 



■ 



, •*»' 








Class &EJ14L 
Book .&?S 

riop§]it"N o 



CQEKEKK3T DEPOSffi 



/ 



U pi verbal i>ia6i)etisiT) 



i\d 



7 

PRIVATE LESSONS 



l lit: 



MAGNETIC ( 0\TI?OL Or OTMI:PS 



IV/ l:l)\UINI) MI.M TESBUBY 






ING I III SI VI NTH I Dl I ION Ol 

\I>VA\( I I) A\ .u.rn I ISM 



lagnettsm Is Ihe power to Influence orZoontroCmlnd or matter." 



1900: 
IALSTON PUBLISHING COMPANY, 

WASHINGTON, l>. < . 



TWO COPIES RECEIVED. 



L/brary of Congress^ 
Office of the 

DEU11 ison 

Register of -Copyrights* 



" \c\00 



48659 



COPYRIGHTED, 
599, 

By RRLSTON PUBLISHING CO. 

All Rights Reserved. 



S^^5 



SECOND COPY, 



^-xsa^ 



°^« , I lo .'<*> ^ , j 



DEDICATION 

10 the fathers of his boyhood, 
the mind of his throbbing 
. heart, the science of his 
life, he owes more than 
words or deeds; and, therefore, 
this meagre dedication is but the 
surface gleam resting upon the 
ocean of gratitude that flows 

neneain. shaptcsbury. 




(~HIS£L In hand stood a sculptor boy 

With his marDle block before him; 
Had his face lit up with a smile of joy, 

7te an angel dream passed o'er him. 
He carved that dream on the yielding stone 

With many a sharp incision; 
In heaven's own light the sculptor shone— 

He had caught that angel vision. 



(< 



Sculptors of life are WE, as we stand, 
With our lives uncarved before us; 

Waiting the hour when at God's command, 
Qur life dream passes o'er us. 

Let us carve it then on the yielding stone, 
With many a sharp incision; 

Its heavenly beauty shall be our own- 
On* lives, that angel vision." 

(3) 



"I AM TAKING A LEAP IN 
THE DARK" 

« 

"5LOWLY, secretly, unnoticed, the fire of magnet- 
ism is started in the human breast. It comes 
before we are aware; it dwells there as an un- 
known presence, for a long time, and is often 
discovered by others who feel its influence, ere 
we ourselves dream of its existence. It is a sub- 
stantial thing, as real as life itself, full of power, 
and replete with possibilities of good or evil. 
Used as a means of furthering our ambitious 
hopes and advancing ourselves in life by ^t\\) 
fair advantage over our fellow-beings it is, perhaps, 
free from condemnation; but woe to any person 
who seeks to use it as an agent of evil, or for the 
robbery of property, heart or virtue." 




'QOP1E feet there be, -which walk life's track ur\wour\ded, 
Which find but pleasant ways; 
Some hearts there be, to which this life is only 
A round of happy days." 



OPENING WORDS 



THIS volume is the accumulation of editions that have 
preceded, to which new matter has been added to such an 
extent that more than eighty per cent, of the contents is 
now published for the first time; or, in other words, less 
than twenty per cent, of this work is reproduced from previous 
editions. Such retaining is necessary, not only to save valuable 
matter, but also to have a complete treatise in one volume. 

Magnetism is the most valuable of all studies. In 
itself it is the power to influence or control mind and matter. 
Such control exists everywhere; as between matter and matter we 
see it in the law of gravity, the law of cohesion, the holding of the 
mariner's needle to the north, and the drawing of one substance to 
another; as between mind and matter, it controls all the physical 
functions of the body, including health and action; as between 
mind and mind, we know there is a channel of communication 
through which influences are sent by powers not answerable to the 
ordinary senses. Every human being possesses some control over 
others, or some means of controlling others, although they may be 
nn known and unused. 

Magnetism and hypnotism are opposite ideas and oppo- 
site terms; yet most persons believe that the person who is mag- 
netized is hypnotized. This is a serious mistake. To magnetize 
is to make more awake, to attract, charm, enliven and vitalize; to 
hypnotize is to make dull, sleepy, repugnant, weak, cataleptic and 
dead as far as the natural functions are concerned. One is always 
grand and noble; the of her is always mean and contemptible. A 
person who is magnetized is made better for it; one who is mesmer- 
ized is made worse for it. 

The young woman who recently hypnotized herself to 
get rid of certain misfortunes that haunted her, went crazy; the 
doctors said that, had she developed her magnetism, she would 
have expelled the first condition and avoided the last. All per- 
sons may hypnotize themselves; all persons may magnetize them- 
selves. To hypnotize, it is necessary that all magnetism shall be 
driven out of the body; to magnetize, renders it impossible to hvp- 

(5) 



6 OPENING WORDS 

notize. This distinction must be well understood, and should be 
kept constantly in mind during the study of this volume. You 
cannot be thin and fat at the same time. You may pass from one 
condition to the other, but not readily. 

A magnetic person may control the hypnotic only 
long as the latter lacks magnetism. The former makes an effc 
to drive out what little vitality of this kind the latter may pose - 
but the sure way of thwarting all such efforts is by the study, cul- 
ture and accumulation of magnetism. By such means, the hyp- 
notic rescues himself from the contact of another. Fright, fear, 
superstition, mental weakness, hysteria and insanity are all over- 
come and forever expelled by the acquisition of magnetism. 

On the other hand, let a person study and practice to 
become an hypnotic, and he will find his mind gradually giving 
way, illusions will come across it, fancies will disturb his - ng 
and waking hours, figures of outlined forms will flit in his path, 
sounds will disturb him, and little surprises will startle him. Afl 
one woman said, who thought she would like to become a clairv 
ant through the process of hypnotism, "Then began my wretch 
ness." The cure of such a condition is through m;i_ m. The 

cure of darkness is light. 

Despite the dangers of hypnotism, we present th< 
complete system of acquiring it that has ever been publish 
if the personal assurances of those who have paid hundreds ; hi- 
lars to other instructors can be believed, the lessons given in this 
volume are better, more scientific, more thorough, and more eff< 
five than any that can be obtained from teachers of the high 
rank. We present herein fully ten times the scope and - of 

any department of previous editions that has been devoted to this 
one study. 

The object is two-fold. First, there should be n< 
lacking in a work of this kind and purport. Second, the reason, 
theory and process of mesmerizing should be understood by all 
classes, especially by those who are liable to be easily influenced or 
led astray. There are grades of mesmeric control, from the well 
known "lapse" of thought to the cataleptic sleep. Mi am 

benefits the user and the person influenced. Mesmerism degra* 
the latter, and is chiefly a plaything for the former. Whether you 
decide to acquire the art of hypnotizing or not. you should no - 
be hypnotized. 



REALM ONE 




"""TELL me what is mat far away— 

I Where hangs the mist-cloud sullen and gray? 
Rising and rolling through clouds of spray, 
Tell me, what is it, pray? 




Universal iVia6r)ebi^ir) ? 

THE POWER THAT BINDS 

MATTER UNDER THE INELUENCE OF MATTER, 

MATTER TO MIND, MIND TO MIND, 

AND SOUL TO SOUL. 

"r^OLD roses, climbing, clasp a casement round, 

Down on the gray stone still their sweet heads laying; 
Below there stands a pale nymph, ivy-crowned, 

A strange air playing :— 
Tain would I wander in the sun-stained gloom 

With thee; might this charmed hour forsake us never; 
Might Put my steps, retraced, this quiet room 

Re-enter ever!' 
Still soD the viol-strings their slow refrain; 

Her eyes uplifted, through a tear-film glisten,— 
'In years far hence Til come to thee again, 

And thou wilt listen. 
Ah, then my spells shall compass thee around, 

With wild airs whispering, and fair lost faces; 
And thou shalt hearken to my viol's sound 
x In shady places.' " 

(7) 



LITE 



a 



I irE! I know not what ri\ou art, 

But Know that thou and l must part; 
And when or how or where we n\er, 
I own to me's a secret yet. 
To the vast ocean of empyreal name. 
from whence thy essence (dine. 
Dost thou tluj flight pursue, when uvea 
from matter's base encumbering weed: 
Or dost thou, hid from sight, 
Wait like some spell-hound Knight, 
Through blank oblivion's years the appointed hour, 
To break thy trance and reassume thy newer.' 
Yet canst thou without thought or Heeling be? 
O say what art thou, when no more ihou'ri the* 
Life! we've been long together, 
Through pleasant and through cloudy weather; 
Tis hard to part when friends are (k\)r. 
Perhaps 'twill cost a sigh, a tear; 

Then steal away, give little warning, 
Choose thine own time ; 
Sag not good-night, but in some brighter clime 
ftid me good-morning." 



(8) 



Universal JM.a6r)efci^n) 







"HTHE woodland silence owe time stirred, 
■ By the soft pathos of some passing bird, 
Is not the same it was before. 
The spot where once, unseen, a flower 
Has held its fragile chalice to the shower, 
Is different forevermore. 
Unheard, unseen, 
A" spell has been!" 




UNDER THE CLOUDS a lad lies dreaming. Beneath 
the branches of a wide-spreading apple tree, on the 
browned and worn sod, he rests in open sleep, his mind 
locked in study, while overhead he views the idle vapors 
as they float dreamily by. The verdure above bends down to 
give shade and cooling protection to the verdure beneath, so that 
he catches glimpses of the sky only through spaces made by the 
yielding boughs. \ 

He wonders at many things. The trees, the shrubs, the 
plants, the flowers all nod obe sance to the sun and its flooding 

|9) 



, 10 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

light. They lift themselves up continually. The rock 
close' to the ground. The volume of air outspreads itself around 
the globe, yet has so much weight that to lift cue inch of it 
from the earth even so slightly, would require pounds of force. 
On the bosom of this air, the clouds glide like boats in the heart 
of the sea. They do not attain the top, nor reach the bottom, ui 
they condense and become heavier than their buoyant master. . 
times they reach dizzy heights; then again they crawl along 
crests of hills; or, in sheer weariness, they approach the gr 
Yet in all their wanderings they are chained to this planet b; 
single law. 

The apple tree is strong and mighty. 
giants. They have gone down many feet in search of per] 
moisture. They have spread in all direct; . .- 
the rich stores in the soil. Their commi Q the 1 

of climbing streams, even tending to the top, 
to the light of day as it is poured forth from the &un. 
tral fire and force seeks all life; and, t<> ansv 
is carried up out of the solid earth n 1 < > 1 1 l: with the livi 
cies that subdue it. Thus inert materia] 
and is kissed by the god thai molds it into beii 

Hanging aloft on the freely swinging branches the 
apple-tree, the fruit is glowing in newly painted c- 
the freshest touch of nature. Drop by dn rticle by 

the juices and the substance have be awn out of I 
from depths profound, up through the trunk and bran 
stem on which the golden apple hai The dream 

watches it swaying in the breeze; m es it hesitate for a n. 
notes its quick flight to the earth. It came, nol by bob 
hurled it down, but by an attraction that drew it. 

What that influence was, that could return mal 
the material fund from which another power had taken it. - 
too subtle a problem for human intellig-. 
centuries have elapsed since the dreamer first caught the - 
its meaning, it still remains unsolved. To ascribe a misun 
process to supernatural control is always the height 
thinking person who respecis his own intellect will fall In. 
the occult excuse for an explanatioi of what he cam 
hend. If this is to be the goal of investigation, the child will 
become a man. 



REALM ONE 11 

The masses that court superstition pass by the greatest 
mystery of the universe. Why does an object fall to the ground? 
What holds the planets fast within the influence of the sun? If 
' you answer one, you cannot answer both. It will not do to say 
it is the attraction of gravity; for the heavier a thing is the less it 
falls. If the object were as great as the earth, the earth would 
rise up to meet the object, and to that extent lessen its fall. The 
'giant orbs that sail in majesty through the still skies of night, can- 
not get away if they would. A rope of influence binds each to its 
place, beyond which there is no wandering. To our humble minds 
it would seem as though some actual chain must be employed, else 
why could not the planet fly away at will? 

Holding myriad tons of matter in easy sway, cheeking 
their advance by consummate skill, and never releasing its mo- 
mentary interest over little things, some influence as powerful as 
the universe itself pervades all existence from the least to the 
greatest, and there is no analysis of science that can solve the mys- 
tery; so it goes unchallenged. Turn whichever way you will, this 
influence is always at hand. It is found in the microscopic sea, 
in the teeming ocean of visible life, and in the vast ether of the sky. 

f m I 

Magnetism is universal. 

This is the 401st Ealston Principle. Much of the mystery of 
existence may be accounted for when we come to recognize the 
fact the forces of nature obey the great law of magnetism; although 
man is powerless to explain the reason or the origin of this law. It 
is not necessary to shut ourselves up in a narrow world of belief, 
and grope outward in the dark, wondering what this mystery is. 
God works through recognized forces, fixed in their laws and natural 
in their results. Superstition is merely the inability to account 
for causes. 

Life is more easily solved if we can come to understand 
that there is a force called magnetism which holds all existence 
together 'and impels all growth and all change. A body flying 
through space would go on in a straight line until it collided with 
another, and it would never cease going if no other were in its way, 
were it not for some magnetic influence that called it back. This 



r 






12 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 



earth is as free as any such object; it starts every year to go off into 
space and gets a few millions of miles farther away from the sun 
in June than in December; but if it were not drawn back, it would 
soon become an iceberg wandering in a void and bearing on its 
bosom nearly two billions of entombed humanity who had frozen 
to death. 

It is wise and merciful that this earth is held to her 
course, and is brought back when she begins to wander off. What 
holds her in place? A cable over ninety millions of miles in 
length might fasten her securely to the sun; and, swinging at 
end, she might whirl through space in joyous security; but the sun 
has other children to control; the many cables might become tan- 
gled; the weight might be intolerable; the end in the planet might 
be difficult to fasten against man's attempt to cut it loose, and the 
heat of the sun would surely melt the other end: bo a long distance 
magnetism is employed to hold the earth in plai 

What this magnetism is that throws out a far- reach] 
control so many millions of miles in space, and keeps all the planets 
in their proper realms, cannot be known or explained. It is best 
to call it an influence. It is not a substance. It is not an ether. 
It has all the power of a cable, or a rope as many miles in diameter 
as you choose to imagine, but it is neither. All 3 thai ahine 

in the sky are supposed to be the central orbs of >ystriii< like our 
own, each holding their subjects in sway by the same law of ma 
netism; and it is a wise provision that these systen - ir apart 

from each other, for they would draw one another out of shape ir 
they could. 

The centrifugal force of the planet is said to keep it in 
motion and ever tending to fly from the sun, while magnetism 

holds it in check, or calls it back. This may account for the 
that the orbs in this solar system are kept regularly in their places, 
and move with the precision of clockwork. But it is either 
that the magnetism of one solar system is limited to Lts own r 
or that it extends into space beyond its own realm. In the hit: 
case, no matter how feeble it might be, some influence would trai 
to other systems; and, as time is nothing, such influence * 
eventually bring the whole heavens together. Such is possibly the 
destiny of the universe, or one of its changes; though the "same ' 
laws that now prevent conflict in our system might protect tin 
in the more general melee. 



REALM ONE 13 

From the larger influences of magnetism, you may come 
down to any lesser use and still find this force at work managing 
things. Kays of sunlight are undoubtedly atoms impelled forth 
by the sun; and they might travel on forever and be lost in space, 
but for the influence of their own magnetism which causes them to 
unite and join the nearest orb in making up its bulk; or else they 
might go back to the sun, and no planets be built. The earth and 
its sister orbs are all thus taken from the sun; and scientists have 
shown that the latter is losing some of its light and size, as you 
may ascertain by reading any extensive work upon the subject of 
the sun. From the greatest to the smallest, and through all mat- 
ter from an atom to a world, magnetism is universal. It is the 
executive power of creation and of creative progress. 

1 4 ° 2 i 

All matter is endowed with magnetism. 

This is the 402d Ealston Principle. We may judge of the 
whole universe by what we are able to ascertain in and on our little 
globe. As it is well proved that the earth is made out of the sun, 
the material of one must be the same as the material of the other. 
Even the rays of light are infinite mineral atoms of sun-matter, out 
of which molecules are made. Time, which is nothing, is alone 
necessary to the construction of all objects, from particles of dust 
to great planets out of a single structure, the indivisible atom. 

Let this atom hold in itself the power oj: attraction, and 
we see at once the solution of all questions relating to< magnetism. 
By a certain class of affinities, molecules, which are the basis of the 
chemical elements, are built out of atoms, each and all alike. It 
is not what a thing is, but how it is put together, that determines 
its size, shape, weight and strength. Chemists tell us there are 
about seventy elements from which all matter is made, whether 
liquid, gaseous, or solid. These elements are changing in number, 
as discovery reveals their identity with others, or separation from 
old affiliations. We will assume there are seventy. They account 
for all the material world, with its contents, animate and inani- 
mate; and for all the orbs in the solar system, as well as for the sun 
itself. 



14 



UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 



These elements are arrangements of molecules, and 

what they axe depends upon the construction of their molecules. 

The latter need be nothing more than fixed arrangements 

atoms. Single atoms flying loose are light. This is elements 

and is the beginning of all matter. Let atoms come together 

twos, or in pairs, and the result would be the lightest gas known. 

Magnetism is eternally tending to bring atoms together. T! 

pulse of fire is tending to separate them, and thus in the dai 

a fire produces light, The greater impulse of the sun drive 

forth separated, but light soon changes to gas of some ki One 

kind of atom, one shape, is all that is needed. Arrang I in 

pairs, and in fixed conditions, will produce liquids and solids; 

first by forming molecules; next by the affinity of fixed classes of 

molecules for each other. 

Magnetism expresses itself iiMv.r; 

struction. As soon as the atoms are sufficiently 

impulse of the sun's force, they obey their own laws of affinity, and 

come together under some guiding intellig i infixed 

The same thought that tells the seed of the 

roots, and its root fibres to draw certain 

for the soil, is able to make classes into which 

themselves. Thus there are but two nei I all 

creation, mind and magnetism; and of thee 

atom is the agent and instrument. 

That force which calls the atoms out of their onward r 
from the impelling energy of the sun and i 
is atomic magnetism. That which holds them ii 
for the construction of chemical elements, is I 
Scientists call it molecular attraction, which 
That which causes a mass of matter to hold 
and this is also magnetism. That which dra - 
another is gravity; and this likewise is magnetism. \i 
be safely assserted that the same original atomic i 
the particles and follows them all through n., 
phenomena of cohesion and gravity. Without this 
energy, it is not possible to explain either force. 

Whether the precise statement of the theory 
ate or not, something akin to it is the fact, and that is the imp- 
ant part of it. Therefore, when atoms, mind and 
at hand, creation may begin. Nothing else is ne> 



REALM ONE 15 

nish the basis of all material construction; magnetism is the force 
that constructs; and mind deter how and what shall be made. 
Atoms could not create themselves; magnetism is an endow- 
ment, and endowments imply a giver; mind is thought whose limit 
is omniscence requiring a supreme intelligence behind it; and all 
these essentials are results, not original causes. They compel a 
recognition of the Creator; unless it is true that something can 
originate from nothing. As the study proceeds, we shall see the 
use of the endowment of magnetism in every act of life and in 
every operation of matter from the least to the greatest. Without 
it, all substance would fly apart, all growth cease, and all thought 
be barren. 

^ u 

1 403 

There are no non-material forces. ? 

This is the 403d Ralston Principle. We would not think of 
calling electricity a spiritual force. Its operations are becoming 
more and more known; but what its substance is, and much of its 
real nature, are yet undiscovered. Still we regard it as a material 
force. The same is true of other laws, such as gravity and co- 
hesion. The object falls to the ground, but the power that brings 
it down or holds it there is not spiritual. The atmosphere is 
lighter than the earth, but none of it is lost in space, for the: same 
law of gravity keeps it within the range of this orb's attraction. 

No more serious puzzle is possible than to explain wherein 
gravity has its existence, or what it is; for we know merely what 
it does. Is it matter? No one thinks it is. It dwells in matter, 
so we are told, and yet there is no evidence that it dwells any- 
where. The law of cohesion is fully as mysterious. We see masses 
held together by some silent power, each molecule clinging to each 
other without hook or lashing cord. Such a force is marvelous, 
yet it is not spiritual. No one pretends that a spirit keeps iron 
together. Perhaps the power itself has no material existence, but 
it lives in matter, and for that reason must be classed as a material 
force. 

Electricity is called a fluid, chiefly because it emits a 
spark in small currents, or a ball of fire when larger masses or vol- 
umes are expended. This evidence of fluidity or of fire may be 



16 



UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 



purely deceptive. A cold stone, a meteor flying through space is 
invisible; but let it strike the atmosphere that surrounds this earth, 
and the 'speed will create a friction that will make the object red- 
hot, sometimes consuming it by reducing its solid material to gas. 
Why may not lightning and electricity set the air itself on fire, or 
the gases in the air? ^When the current is perfectly conducted 
from place to place, it'is invisible. Eesting in a storage jar, it 
shows neither light, heat nor fire. It is in breaking that it shows 
itself, and its breaking is merely an attempt to leap some distance 
which impedes its course; or the ball that seems so clearly visible 
and so powerful may be a collection of matter caught up and car- 
ried along by the fearful rush of the current. 

It is in interrupting the perfect course, in making a break 
in the line of travel by which it is conducted, that every known 
quality, attribute, characteristic and power of electricity, are 
known; and any instance that seems to contradict this statement 
can be analyzed down to its exact truth. On the other hand, there 
is no fire, no light, and no heat in either electricity or lightni] 
when uninterrupted. The message that speeds from Boston to 
San Francisco gives no evidence, night or day, of its existence: nor 
would the operator be able to recognize it unless he were to check 
it and read the meaning of its interruptions. The principle of 1 
telephone is in the disc-vibrations which interfere with the electri- 
cal currents by the action of the vibrations of the voice. Lighl 
produced by imperfect conduction, which amounts to the game 
thing as partial interruption of the flow. 

Our purpose in this line of thought is to Buggest that 
perhaps electricity produces, but is not. lire, heat and light: I 
cause these appear only when the current is active. If so, then it 
may take its place with such forces as gravity and cohesion: the 
former causing large bodies to approach each other, the latter hold- 
ing molecules together. These all affect matter, yet have no 
material existence; and are probably endowments of matter. Tin \ 
are not non-material forces; for, if so, they would be endowme^ 
of spiritual life. Because a ball thrown in the air will drop to the 
ground, does not prove that its falling is due to some spiritual 
attribute. Gravity is not matter; it is an endowment of mattter: 
and is therefore a material force. 

The time is ripe when, in the history of mankind, the 
fear of the unknown should be abolished. No one hopes to grasp 



REALM ONE 17 

the reins of knowledge whose mind is unable to travel; for we are 
shut in on this little orb, without opportunity of stepping off to 
visit the sister spheres of the sky, and all beyond us must be viewed 
in wonderment. What we can learn is the nature and purpose of the 
laws at work in our own bodies, in our minds, in our souls, and in 
the operations of life about us, reserving the discovery of the great 
universe itself to some happier era, and in some nobler clime, to 
which we may be invited, or from which we may be excluded. 

1 404 1 

1 fit 

The two necessary forces behind all creation are 
mind and magnetism. 

This is the 404th Ralston Principle. It is not what matter can 
do, but what can be done with matter, that makes life powerful. 
Forces count for everything; matter for nothing. Archimedes 
could have moved the world had he been able to find a fulcrum on 
which to place a lever, and the energy would have controlled mat- 
ter, even though it were not material. It so happens that chemistry 
can analyze nothing but matter, or that which is used, not that 
which uses it. This is a small field of analysis in the realm of crea- 
tion; though complete in itself. 

Creation involves the necessity of something to build 
with. The architect first ascertains what he is to do, the size, shape 
and uses of the structure that is needed. He plans it; this is mind. 
He then turns it over to the energy that is to do the work of build- 
ing. Magnetism is the builder of the universe. In order to erect a 
structure mind and energy must spend themselves on something 
material. This is true when God builds, or when man builds. Mat- 
ter is merely the substance to be used to give shape and reality to 
the forces that exist; and it cannot be possible that there is any 
existence without matter. This assertion does not intrude upon 
the idea of the life of the soul. 

All energy comes from magnetism, whether individual 
or collective. Individual energy is that which each atom pos- 
sesses to attract others to itself. Collective energy in chemistry is 
that which each molecule expresses in establishing its affinity for 
others of its class. Collective energy in life, whether animal or 




18 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

vegetable, is the nervous force behind the muscles, or the mental 
force behind both. These concern us most in this present study. 
As life comes up the scale, and as matter increases in the size and 
importance of its arrangement, the collective power of magnetism 
becomes greater and more useful. 

Mind is associated with organic matter. By tins 
kind of matter is meant not only that which is part of some organ- 
ized body in the animal or vegetable kingdom, but also the general 
fund of disorganized life which is wanting to enter again into or- 
ganized bodies. This fund may be associated with inorganic matter, 
yet be no part of it. Wherever protoplasm will form, there is mind. 
The cells from the tiniest bacteria up to amoebic structures, and 
every form of plasmic growth, are impelled in their natun n- 

telligences that lie in the nuclei in the pa tiled ids, 1 

feet cell, or life, contains a nucleus, and each nucleus contains an 
id. Here we see matter, magnetism and mi The mass of the 

cell is the material part; the nuclei!- tic part: 

and the id the intelligence. These are colled and 

dwell in matter as endowments of it. 

It seems that these forces have been to i. 

and that it then has been left to work out the problems of growth 
under the direction of accident and circumstances. The cell devel- 
opment of plants is necessarily the result of an ever ; I intelli- 
gence in the cells and plants themse] b an intelligence 
blindly follows wherever it is bidden. One variety goes on t< 
ing its kind until a chance mixture in tin directing 
hand of culture produces a deviation; then the .- ntelligen 
within the life goes on as blindly ;. \ q mind can 
conceive the full process, nor human skill 
•quired in the making of the simplest plant; and, wer 
ful care suspended but a minute, the structure would eollaps- 
: such intelligence is altogether blind, while keener than the bfl 
of man. 

The same skilful but impulsive enerj n in I 

magnetism with which all matter is endowed \ work could be 
more perfect and more far reaching, yet at the same time more 
blindly done. But we have the satisfaction of knowing that, as 
organisms rise from their lower planes, the collect i\ j and 

magnetic energies concentrate themselves in brain a: - :id 

then assume command, not only of themse: 



REALM ONE 19 

and life around. It seems to be the will of nature that combina- 
tion and concentration of the very forces that produce themselves 
shall come to direct and partly control themselves. 

^ 405 § 

Magnetism is a positive force. 

This is the 405th Kalston Principle. There are many kinds 
of magnetism, but they are all probably resolvable into the same 
force. We believe that force to be electricity, and to be the same 
whether it is manifested as mere electricity or as some form of 
magnetism. It is common to hear of mechanical magnetism, of 
vegetable magnetism, and of animal magnetism; but, when that 
which is termed mechanical was found to be an associate of or- 
dinary electricity, investigators began to see if one was really not a 
condition of the other. 

The force that leaps from the clouds in the thunder- 
storms was suspected by Franklin to be of the same nature as that 
which was generated by the electrical machine. He believed that 
he had proved this to be true; and, as the latter was known as 
mechanical or machine-electricity, it was perfectly proper to speak 
of the same energy in nature as mechanical, although a difference 
in terms might be of some slight value. These constitute the two 
great divisions of this force. It is, however, debatable whether 
that electrical energy which is well recognized as the foundation 
of animal vitality is identical with mechanical electricity, is one 
of its uses, or is an entirely separate force; and this may be worth 
considering elsewhere. 

That animal life possesses electricity has been an 
established fact for some thousands of years. The skin and hair 
is capable of generating by friction the common mechanical elec- 
tricity, and this we have no right to regard as anything further. 
By animal electricity is meant that which dwells in the life of the 
inner organism. We stroke a cat's back, we run a comb through 
our own hair, we rub our hands together, we walk on the carpet; a 
spark that flies from the tip of the finger, or that portion of the 
body which is first brought in contact with a conducting agency, 
must be classed with those types of electricity that are generated 
by mechanical devices, for they are identical in character. 



20 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

Persons who throw off sparks developed in any of tl. - 
ways are fond of believing that they are charged with an abundance 
of magnetism. In this they are mistaken. Energy so required U 
never retained; even the slight moisture in the air absorbs it. This 
may be seen from the fact that there is no storage resulting from 
friction of the hair, as the cat neither gains nor loses by the opera- 
tion. It is very easy to excite surface electricity by rubbing the 
feet upon a carpet, and this is no deeper than the cuticle; it spends 
itself if not used at once. It has not been generated within, is not 
carried within, and vanishes almost in the making. On the other 
hand, the person who is able to generate electricity by controlling 
the life forces within the body, is also able to retain it and 
will. One such person, possessing determined energy, will throw 
off hundreds of sparks from the tips of the fii. 
them instantly if so desired. He can take the hand of another and 
send a current of fire through the body, or yield nothing but Id 
and clammy touch, letting out or holdi: 

Animal electricity answers to all the laws - -f 
ical electricity; the only seeming d that 

the former is controlled largely by the will of while the lat- 

ter runs free. This difference, however, if 

lects his energy from the general fund of nat it in 

storage by some kind of insulation, lie bottl he 

lightning, draws this force out. of the still 

it by chemical action; the animal organifi om 

the remarks thus far made it is apparel 
with both mechanical and animal electricity. 1 
and more important kind which is com* 

the body; and this may be called vital , ra i n 

is a special organ whose thinking pn 
still another kind known as mental electa 
volume we will discuss these and men 

Electricity and magnetism mean nearly the sam 
but there is a distinction between them. \ S 
ered that electricity was a standing as well 
energy, than the other fact appeared that [i 
pose of attracting or repelling. It was ough matter had be, 

endowed with affinities and dislikes, and then , 
force extracted from these two characteristics. Held r 
or under control by being insulated, it is alv eki ng the mea 



REALM ONE 21 

of escape either toward some condition whose influence it obeys or 
commands, or from an enmity which repels it. It has been said of 
it that it is positive and negative; that two positive currents repel 
each other; that two negative currents repel each other, and that a 
positive current and negative attract each other. It has been 
claimed that these are opposite uses of the same energy. 

No magnetism exists that is not electrical; in its 
nature; and no electricity exists that cannot be turned to magnet- 
ism. This is true of every kind, mechanical as well as others. 
Those who are most successful in harnessing the forces of nature 
are free to admit that while much is understood of the uses of this 
power, little or nothing is known of what it is, or in what condi- 
tion it exists. The spark, the flash, the ball of fire, or the bolt of 
lightning, may be matter consumed by the speed of this energy, 
and not the force itself; therefore, until more is known of its true 
nature, it is not safe to regard it as fire, heat, or any form of these. 
Water thrown upon a burning building in a quantity less than 
sivmcient to drown the flames, will add to them and burn like oil; 
so the lightning that travels through vaporous clouds at the speed 
of many miles a second may turn moisture to fire and leave a gleam- 
ing path of combustion even at the end of its course. 

If electricity is an energy merely, it may be of the same 
kind, or identical with gravity and cohesion. We know that par- 
ticles are held together by the attraction of their atoms or mole- 
cules, and that these are not fastened by interlacing or hooking; 
we also know that under other conditions particles of solid matter 
fly apart and become antagonizing gases; these are due to magnet- 
ism and repulsion. We believe that fire is one form of this repul- 
sion, and solidity its absence. Cohesion then is an energy. 
Gravity is a similar force, and may be identical with it. It is 
powerful enough to hold all the elements and properties of this 
planet together under one system of government, to hold all 
planets and their intervening orbs together in the sun's great fam- 
ily, and probably the sun itself in its proper place in the universe. 
It is possible that electricity is merely the energy of gravity col- 
lected out of matter for temporary uses; and it seems almost prob- 
able that this is so for all matter is imbued with gravity, all gravity 
is an attracting force that is at home or in equilibrium when un- 
disturbed, electricity pervades all matter, is restive when out of 
equilibrium, and is quiet when back again in matter. 



22 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

If you will imagine two particles of matter so small that 
you can see them only under the most powerful microscope, cling- 
ing together without an apparent reason; and the myriad millions 
of other particles holding themselves together in the same mi 
you will have an illustration of what is meant by the magn- 
property of common electricity. Where this property 
whether in or through the mass, or at the edges or surf a 
molecules, is not known. Whether it is a mind, or an inteU 
force with which all things are blindly endowed, amounts to i >ne 
and the same thing. It is electrical energy, magnetic because it 
attracts, because it controls other substance, because it hold- to- 
gether the parts that must be bound to each other to mak- the 
strength of the whole, and because it obeys other master-mii. 

Vitality may be a separate fund, and u -till 

another fund, dwelling apart by then - and coming to D 

when conditions are ripe for action; or vita] intelligence 

may dwell in a certain division of matter through which t 
tool such other portions as they may be able to influence. In the 
first case these forces make use of matter; in the second case tl 
dwell in it and are blindly attached to it, foil in 

their operations. Like the enei which are call» • y and 

cohesion, vitality and intelligence ma] 

the more we study them, the easier it i> to bt that all p- wet 

can be traced to this one mother-force. How much of this may 
be true may, for the present, be held as probl* Those who 

regard the universe as divisible into tw< rial and 

non-material, subdivide the latter part into energies of material, 
and into spiritual forces; but, until a r at- 

tributable to matter or spirit can be closer! >o early to 

construct a system of explanation based upon laws of the spiritual. 
There is as much mystery attached to the forces which we know 
govern them, as to those which are sup-. 

and the mind at times gives evidence of supernatural powers whi< 
defy all explanation. It may be true that one and all art ly 

different uses of one great endowment, electricity or mag 
These problems and questions will receive full attention in : 
pages of this volume. 

Magnetism, on its positive side, works for life i 
growth. When it welds particle to particle it 
ter; it constructs, and out of it u . f iron 



REALM ONE 23 

tenuity of wire, the elasticity of rubber, and all those qualities 
which make these forms useful and yet of different characteristics. 
On no other ground than magnetism can these things be accounted 
for. Kelease its positive and affirmative nature, and form is lost, 
molecules drop apart, decay sets in and life, growth and con- 
structile strength no longer exists. It lifts the vapor from the 
ground, separating it from water by a change in specific gravity; 
then, when it has attained its height in the atmosphere it is again 
given over to the magnetism of gravity by condensation. Under a 
similar operation it prevents rivers from freezing to solidity and 
thereby becoming useless. It interchanges the strata of air pro- 
ducing temperatures and barometric changes whereby vegetation 
is protected. In this way we might go on almost indefinitely cit- 
ing instances of the usefulness of magnetism as a positive force; 
the loss of any one of which would instantly destroy all life on this 
planet. 

Mind and thought are magnetic phenomena. The 
physical brain is a battery of electricity peculiarly adapted to those 
vibrations which occur for the reception of ideas, and those other 
vibrations by which ideas are generated and sent forth into the 
system to be enacted into realities. It is not the reception of an 
idea, but its formulation and going forth out into the great sea of 
human thought, that exhibits the positive power of man's magnet- 
ism in this realm. The power behind the creation of ideas, 
whether from the reasoning faculties or from the will, is something 
that becomes a tremendous energy under the stimulus of the being 
in control. Not only in what is said, but in the way in which it 
is uttered, in the vital energy that propels its utterance, in the/- 
magnetic fires that burn in the tones of the voice, and in the vigor 
of mind which makes the same idea a different instrument of 
power when put in a stronger framework of construction, doe3 
positive electricity show itself in the life of one who is supreme 
master of the faculties with which nature has endowed him. 

" Let there be light /" said God; and forthwith Light 
Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure, 
Sprung front the deep ; and, from her native east, 
The journey through the airy gloom began, 
Sphered in a radiant cloud" 



UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 



24 



^mm^^^t^^^' 



i 

Ij 406 

Hypnotism is a negative condition. 

This is the 406th Kalston Principle. The word negative may 
have more than one signification. Ordinarily it means a denial or 
refusal to believe a certain affirmative proposition. Again it means 
the mere lack of anything, and in this use it denotes absence. In 
speaking of electricity it is merely a term of convenience supposed 
to distinguish one kind of a current from another, although the idea 
of repellant action is associated with it. We are speaking of a con- 
dition that is the opposite of magnetism,, and in so doing our DI 
of the word comes close to the meaning of absen 

On a sunny day we sit beneath the Bhade 
and our principal reflection is that we are out of the intense light; 
but there is brightness all around us in lesser degree. On a clou 
day we see the earth entirely enveloped in the protecting sha<: 
but the sun is shining above it all. In the night we r :ie 

dark side of the planet, not thinking or Btopping to think that the 
very darkness in which we are enveloped ive condition 

of the sunshine; but no night is so dark, noi the clou 

shut out the stars, that there is not some lighl \ e out of 

doors. It is only when we shut ourselves within walls more opaque 
than sky-clouds that it can be said that all 1L - 

and even then the phosphoresence of the brain shining in the eyes, 
and of gem-life, steps in with atomic rays. 

There is no shadow without light ; bo tl 
notism without magnetism; light is a positive f«>ree, shadow is a 
negative condition; it cannot he called a f < no 

energy. Take all the light away arid darkir h uld he complete; 
take all the magnetism out of a person, and the hypn unlition 

is then complete, assuming that life remains. Afl - ; ' 
find absolute darkness, so it is rare that magnetism is entirely la 
ing in a human life. Light comes from the sun din 
electric current, from coal, wood, the candle and the many forms of 
combustible material, as well as from phosphorescence, which is the 
glow of elementary atoms widely scattered. Light is. therefore, of 
every kind and of every degree of intensity: and the same may be 
said of magnetism, except that, while it is more limited 
it has the widest possible range of force and qualil 



REALM ONE 25 

What seems less intense darkness at one time than 
another is merely a variation of light either in its quality or quan- 
tity. We often meet persons of whom we might say, carelessly 
speaking, that they are entirely devoid of magnetism; being straws 
in the wind of others' influence; so we often enter rooms, or pass 
through groves at night, where darkness seems to be complete, yet 
some light is there. These remarks are made to illustrate the point 
that few persons exist without some magnetic vitality. Strictly 
speaking, it cannot be said of them that they are in the negative 
condition referred to under our principle; so, strictly speaking, we 
can rarely ever declare any place to be absolutely dark. Darkness, 
however, is generally referred to as a condition opposite to that of 
light; and we designate that state in which the magnetic energy is 
low as partly hypnotic; although not involving complete uncon- 
sciousness of the natural mind. 

It is necessary to understand that hypnotism does not 
always or generally exhibit itself in the sleep state. There is a 
certain average line in which the magnetism of an individual may 
be said to be normal; above which it may be called abundant and 
therefore, positive, as we use the term; and below this dividing line, 
as the vitality departs from the average or normal, it enters into 
the hypnotic or negative condition. With this understanding we 
can make clear to our students the various degrees of influence by 
which persons are more or less deprived of their magnetism below 
the normal plane, and are brought into the hypnotic state, without 
showing any semblance of sleep. Thus hypnotism, in a partial 
state, manifest sitself in persons who are wide awake and have no 
knowledge that their magnetism is being taken from them. This 
corresponds to the partial absence of light, when gloom prevails 
without actual darkness. 

The true cataleptic sleep involves a loss of consciousness 
in the natural mind; all the functions of the body are at a stand- 
still; breathing has ceased, so that death might be announced were 
it not for some symptoms which indicate the trance condition; and 
the nerves are insensible to pain, in so far that they may be sub- 
jected to flame without recoiling. This is a complete negative state, 
in which all magnetism is absent. Such a condition comes on of 
itself through the process of disease that separates the storage bat- 
teries of vitality from the nervous system, rendering the mind use- 
less. The body is dead in a magnetic sense, but lives for days, and 



26 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

even weeks, as. an insensible piece of plant life, its only functions 
that are alive being those that are directly inherited from the vege- 
table kingdom, and these in a minimum degree. 

So extreme a condition is rarely met with in any human 
being who is not actually diseased. As in the case of Bishop, the 
mind-reader, it is sometimes possible for a person to put himseU 
in this depleted state; but the clairvoyants, of whom there are a few 
who are genuine, rarely ever enter the full cataleptic state. is 

not necessary in order to open up the sub-conscious mind. This 
shows that the faculties which awaken under th -otic influence 

are not necessarily developed by a prior exhaustion of ma. n, 

after the first experiences. In the attempt to subjugate the will of 
a person, it is generally considered necessary to completely ex- 
all magnetic vitality; but this is used in the sense of expelling all 
light from a room that is only ordinarily dark. The word com- 
plete, as will be seen, does not mi tally com t in true 
cataleptic conditions. 

It was formerly supposed thai bypi 
a peculiar influence exerted only by a pea in that din - 

tion. This is now known to be untrue I oh tiring as 

the gift of hypnotizing; but it require skill and a special talent 

for suggestion. Hypnotism I on a i :»tic sleep, but cata- 

leptics are not able to show tin of the sub-conscious facu 

until they have been led on by his ai ing to them the 

things to be done and said. Ordinarily the victim of the disease 
known by this name is worth' riment in this 

line; so would a person be who had been put int 
sleep without the aid of suggestions to opei ifl faculty. V 

therefore, see that an operator is required, who must bandit his 
subject with skill and turn the hypnotism at 

Instead of the gift of hypnotism. w( must s] akol 
gift of suggestion; and this is an art that is rare indeed. Perhaps 
we may be wrong in inferring that it does not require skill to br 
on the cataleptic sleep; it does require skill to exh. ig- 

netism of another person, but this belongs to one who Ifl la, 
through superior magnetic vitality, to absorb what 
may be in the subject, which of itself leaves him in mesnie" 
The first essential is to find the individual who may th 
come; the second, is to find one who has sufficient magn o 

conquer the other; the third, is to combine with r the 






REALM ONE 27 

skill of suggestion, so as to take advantage of the mesmeric sleep. 
All this would look as if there must be some person gifted in 
hypnotizing; and, taken in a popular sense, all persons are so gifted 
to a greater or less degree, except that they have not the skill to 
follow up the advantage by the art of suggestion. 

Self-hypnotism is more common than that of personal 
influence. This being true, it may be understood how a man who 
had never practiced either branch of the art in his life, on catching 
a friend of his in the act of mesmerizing himself by looking at a 
silver ball, put to test what he had read in books by making sug- 
gestions just as his friend was falling into the hypnotic sleep. To 
his surprise the latter talked and acted like an experienced subject; 
he obeyed the amateur operator to a degree of perfection that 
finally alarmed him; and he had some difficulty in bringing him 
out of this condtion. The most surprising result of all was the fact 
that he secured control over his friend so that he could put him 
into the mesmeric sleep at will. This shows that there is no such 
thing as the gift of hypnotism, that the state of subjection may be 
produced by other causes than those emanating from the influence 
of individuals, and that any person who is reasonably magnetic may 
step in with the art of suggesting and turn the sleeper into a sub- 
conscious subject. 

" <A s ships that pass in the night 

tAnd speak each other in passing, 
Only a signal given and a 

^Distant voice in the darkness ; 
So on the ocean of life we 

"Pass and speak one another, — 
Only a look and a voice, then 

Darkness again, and a silence." 










"IN early days mefhought that all musl last; 
Then I beheld all changing, dying, fleeting; 
But though my soul now grieves for much mat's p 
Rnd changeful fortunes set my heart on Dcatl 

I yet believe in mind mar all will last, 
Because the old in new I still am merlin 










REALM TWO 




a 



YOU meaner beauties of the night, 
That poorly satisfy our eyes 
riore by your numbers than your light,— 

You common people of the skies, 
What are you when the moon shall rise ? " 





NEGATIVE MAGNETISM 

OR 



HVPNOTIS/Vi 




IC 



HOUND the first object doth it overflow, 

Which, be it fair ov foul, is sure to win us 
Out of ourselves. We clothe with our own nature 

The man or woman its first want doth find. 

The leafless prop with our own hands we bind, 
And hide in blossoms ; fill the empty feature 
With our own meanings ; even prize defects 

Which keep the mark of our own choice upon 
The chosen; bless each fault whose spot protects 

Our choice from possible confusion 
With the world's other creatures; we believe them 

What most we wish, the more we find they are not; 

Our choice once made, with our own choice we 
war not; 
We worship them for what ourselves we give them." 

(29) 



LUCIFER'S PHILOSOPHY. 

"7TY, if forgetting and eternal hope 

Were not to destiny so closely wed;— 
The one doth heal thy bleeding wounds, 
The other closely screens abysmal depths, 
And gives new courage, saying- 
Rash hundreds found a grave therein, 
Thou shalt De the first to safely leap it o'er. 
Hast not thou, scholar, full oft beheld 
The many freahs and whims among 
The parasites that brood and breed 
In cats and owls only, 
But must pass in mice their earliest stage 
Of slow development ? 
Not just the one or other mouse 
Predestined is the claw to feel 
Of cat or owl; who cautious Is 
May even both avoid, and keep 
In ripe old age its nest and house. 
A relentless hand doth yet provide 
Just such a number for his foes 
As its presence here on earth 
Ages hence insures. 
Nor is the human being Pound, 
And yet the race wears chains. 
Zeal carries thee like a ricxxi along: 
To-day for this, for thar ro-morrow, 
The funeral pyres will their victims claim, 
And of scoffers there will be no lack ; 
While he who registers the count 
Will be In wonder lost, that wanton rate 
Should have maintained such \xkc consistency 
In mahing, matching, marring, 
In virtue, faith, and sin and death, 
In suicide and lunacy." 



HYPNOTISM 

"tA man there came, whence none could tell, 

Bearing a touchstone in his hand ; 
And tested all things in the land 

By its unerring spell. 
But though they slew him with the sword 

And in a fire his touchstone burned, 
Its doings could not be overturned, 

Its undoings restored. 
And when, to stop all future harm, 

They strewed its ashes on the breeze ; 
They little guessed each grain of these 

Conveyed the perfect charm." 

^COMPLETE COURSE OE LESSONS IN THE SCIENCE 
RND ART Or MESMERIZING. 




"How shall I know thee in the sphere which keeps 
The disembodied spirits of the dead, 
When all of thee that time could wither sleeps 
And perishes among the dust we tread?" 

NOT everything that can be acquired is worth acquir- 
ing. The privilege of putting a defenceless person to 
sleep, and then waking him up into a different state of 
consciousness wherein he is made the victim of your own 
whims and the stray influences of other minds, is sought because 
it is considered an evidence of power. The graver question is, 
whether it compensates for the trouble and efforts that are entailed 
upon the operator, and the injury it does to the nervous system of 
the subject. 

As long as the matter remains so obscure as at the 
present time, so long will men and women seek the knowledge that 
will enable them to acquire the power of hypnotizing their fellow 

(31) 



32 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

beings. You may not know it, but the numbers that are eagerly 
inquiring for this knowledge are surprisingly large. Most appli- 
cants disclaim the intention of taking advantage of those they may 
control, even deeming it praiseworthy if good is done them 
through this means. In personal letters, almost without limit, we 
have for years advised all correspondents to drop the idea and cling 
only to the nobler art of magnetism; but, amidst it all, there comes 
the persistent demand for a clear understanding of hypnotism. 
Men and women will have the knowledge, cost what it may. Our 
duty was then made plain. 

Deception and fraud are more rampant in this line of 
publications than in most any other. Those who know how the 
art of hypnotizing is acquired seem unwilling to part with their 
knowledge; for what good reason it is hard to say. Those who 
know something of this art, but not all, are most free to impart 
this and much more added. The result is that the public are 
never sure of what they are getting. Only recently we saw a 
private pamphlet for which a man of intelligence paid fifty dol- 
lars; and it contained sixty pages of impossible instruction, mixed 
with good and bad advice. We showed the uselessness of the work 
by comparing the pretended lessons with the genuine; the former 
wasting energy for nothing, the latter giving results in a satisfac- 
tory manner. 

A wife asked for instructions of such a nature that 
would enable her to control her husband so as to prevent his ruin 
through drink. The request was a worthy one, the object in view 
most commendable; but hypnotism could not check his appetite 
for liquor except when he was in a sub-conscious frame of mind, 
or partly so; and we advised magnetizing the man instead of hyp- 
notizing him. After repeated letters and arguments we succeeded 
in explaining the difference, with the result that the woman 
adopted magnetism and made a man of her husband. A similar 
request came from a woman who loved a young man and desired 
to secure his consent to marrying her; so she asked for lessons in 
hypnotism, thinking that a cataleptic would propose to her. He 
might do so while in that condition, but not intelligently. We 
showed to her the difference, and she used magnetism with perfect 
success. We cite these two cases, which really are typical ones, 
because certain advertisins: teachers strongly advised the use of 
hypnotism, and failure could not be avoided. 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 33 

All persons may acquire magnetism, and most persons 
may learn to mesmerize. No one need fail to magnetize; many 
fail to mesmerize. Of those in the latter class who do fail, the 
majority do so, not from lack of knowledge or correct training, but 
from lack of courage and tact at the crucial moment; as, for in- 
stance, when the subject is poised in that doubtful mood when a 
quick release will seem like a gift from the operator, and he is left 
too long before being released; thus realizing his own power in- 
stead of the manipulators. For this reason and because of tact 
at the right moment, or second, many subjects are lost; and it may, 
therefore, be said that all persons who might become hypnotizers, 
will not. Yet the advertising teachers go on guaranteeing that all 
will acquire the art. If it were true that all may, it is not true 
that all will. A commercial college promised that every pupil in 
its charge would become a good penman, and learn to write a neat 
and beautiful hand; for the reason that the art was one that all 
could acquire. This may have been an honest fallacy. It is true 
that nearly every person, if not all, may learn to write a neat and 
beautiful hand; but it is not true that half of those who may do 
so, will do so<. The same is true of hypnotizing. Very few ot 
those who are unable to acquire the power, have the tact to win at 
the crucial moment. Some who fail at one time, succeed later on. 

Patrons of reliable teachers are sure to Mame their 
instructors because of this failure. In some cases the teachers are 
to blame; for they should make their work so clear and so plain 
that even stupid pupils may understand; but this does not give tact 
and skill. It may help. The fault may be with the method. It 
is wrong to take tuition fees from those who are not likely to suc- 
ceed, unless there is a clear understanding that the primary pur- 
pose of the instruction is to show the way to avoid the hypnotic 
influence of another; or to save oneself from the horrors of self- 
magnetism. This is always a worthy object, and should be en- 
couraged. 

There are several ways of taking lessons in this negative 
art. Many if not all traveling mesmerists advertize to give instruc- 
tion in their work, and go so far as to guarantee success in a few- 
lessons. The fee they charge is a very flexible one; if the appli- 
cant is poor, it is never less than twenty-five dollars; and a prom- 
ise of secrecy is properly asked for and given. If the would-be 
pupil is able to pay, the amount demanded is large; and there are 



v> 



34 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

instances of five thousand dollars being paid at the beginning, 
before a single lesson was taken; while more was stipulated for 
raider a conditional contract in which no payment was to be made 
railess the mesmeric power was in fact acquired. The instructor 
saw that it was acquired. 

It is the rule of mesmeric teachers, if they are travel- 
ing operators, not to give results even where they can. Some take 
a, fee of twenty-five or fifty dollars, and impart correct knowledge, 
then ask for another fee on the ground that it is a difficult case. 
To do this they avoid making a promise to complete the instruction 
for the first fee. Some assure their applicants of success by word 
of mouth; then supersede this by printed or written contracts con- 
taining clause to the contrary, which have legal force. It seems to 
he understood that a successful operator does not wish competition. 
He tells as little as he can, and leaves his pupil to hunt for more, 
but in vain. Sometimes he checks the progress of the lessons by 
falling back upon a stipulation and demanding a further fee that 
cannot be met. 

A young man acquaintance of the author, who was 
wealthy, but who seemed to lack magnetism, and who gave not the 
slightest promise of ever acquiring the mesmeric art, spent four 
hundred dollars in lessons with a very prominent public operator, 
and learned absolutely nothing. He then paid fifty dollars to a 
younger and less prominent operator, with a further agreement to 
pay more if he succeeded; and, as a result, he became as effective 
and as powerful a hypnotist as either of his teachers. In a conver- 
sation, he assured us that the greater of these told him half, and no 
more, and that the other was willing to finish the course; yet he 
did not tell either teacher the method of the other. 

Seeing the newly acquired power of his young friend, 
the author reversed the order. He employed the less prominent 
operator as a teacher, got the full course honestly, used it effec- 
tively, and then graduated to the dishonest instructor, whom he 
called to an account that was not pleasant. Since then he has paid 
over two thousand dollars for the methods of others; with a view of 
securing what information was obtainable. In addition to this, he 
has witnessed the hypnotizing of fifteen hundred persons, some by 
himself, but the great majority by professional public arid private 
operators. Through all his experience, the substantial facts remain 
the same and the laws are based upon unvarying principles. 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 35 

For the sake of those who may be in doubt, w<; will gay 
frankly that every means of help that is attainable anywhere is pre- 
sented in the folcjwing pages of this volume; and it is much easier 
to learn to mesmerize by the printed instructions than by a personal 
teacher. This book, besides saving scores, if not hundreds of dol- 
lars, will accomplish more results, will save time in practice, and 
will enable you to teach others with success. A person who should 
come to you and pay you fifty dollars to be taught this art would 
stand a much better chance of acquiring it, than if he were to go to 
other means of instruction. You would be safe in making such 
promise. It is never right to guarantee that every person will ac- 
quire it, for the lack of skill and tact may stand in the way. It 
is true that most persons may acquire it. You may become a thor- 
oughly effective teacher without being able to Irynotize. 

The number or proportion of those who may be hyp- 
notized is growing less, and we are doing all we can to assist in the 
diminution. There are many reasons why the condition of cata- 
lepsy should be avoided. It indicates ill health of the nervous sys- 
tem, and causes an increase of this malady, while standing in the 
way of its cure; and this is true whether the mind is fully overcome 
by such control, or is merely in a state of lapsed memory, which 
is the least of the mesmeric or cataleptic degrees. There can be no 
gratification in this yielding to the will of another. Even the clair- 
voyant power, which has been turned to good account in a few in- 
stances, is useful to the operator but not to the subject, as the latter 
knows nothing of what occurs in its exercise. 

Persons who are fully mastered by this influence, as 
well as those who come partly under its control, suffer from nervous 
weakness; although a few rare exceptions may be found among the 
fully equipped clairvoyants. There are hours of unrest in every 
day of life. Morning, following a refreshing natural sleep, is the 
only period of the day when the mind is free from hallucinations. 
As evening approachhes and the darkness deepens the shadows 
along the road, vague fears startle the nerves, and a longing to b« i 
in the rooms within the house drives away all sense of pleasure in 
the scenes without. 

This condition of unrest and fear is experienced by 
those who have come under the influence of the operator, wheth 
fully or partly; but is more annoying in cases where self-hypuo- 
tism has occurred. This peculiar affliction should be first consul- 



36 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

ered. It lias been known for centuries that the optic nerve might 
be made the agent of mesmerizing the mind in a mechanical way; 
and investigation has shown that the condition within the body, 
as to life-functions in their influence on the thoughts, as well as 
outer. 



1 407 1 

Self-hypnotism is mechanically produced through 
the optic nerve. 

This is the 407th Ealston Principle. Few persons are aware 
of the fact that if they gaze at a small shining ball placed in f ror. t 
of the eyes slightly raised, the optic nerve will soon become tired 
and the mind will pass into a wrapt or ecstatic condition; and those 
whose nerves are abnormal or morbid will become mesmerized, 
while the others will pass through a troubled slumber into natural 
waking. 

The mental and nervous conditions are morbid when 
they are diseased or disordered. This comes from physical causes 
through illness that leaves the body weak and the nerves unsteady; 
or else through some interruption of the vital currents, as by mis- 
fortune, gloom, disappointment, and insufficient nutrition. The 
brain and the nerves are associated; being alike in their ordinary 
activities, and subject to the same laws of health and disease. 
Nervous excitement involves the brain before it does the body; and 
anything that startles or agitates the senses will derange the nerv- 
ous system. Thus the scream of a child has caused a woman to 
drop a glass; the sight of a strange person, or of something that 
surprises or horrifies, may take away all power of motion, or so 
weaken the nerves that the limbs tremble and the strength gives 
way. It is on this principle that the hearing of bad news will 
cause a collapse of the stomach and stop digestion. 

There are so many intricate problems involved in this 
connection that it is impossible to consider them all. Not a gen- 
eration ago it was hard to find persons who believed in the power 
of mesmerism; and still harder to find those who could be induced 
to accept the theory that the body was the slave of the mind; al- 
though the few investigators of these subjects in every age had 
been acquainted with them from the beginning of history. Ths 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 37 

heart-beats, the pulsing blood, the flow of life along the nerves, 
the acciuiiiilaiion of power in the central batteriee of the body, are 
urged to excess or drooped in weakness as the mind is buoyant or 
depressed. But what a shock of fear may accomplish in a mental 
way, the wearying of the eye may do in a mechanical. Vet som. - 
thing must exist beyond this. Lives are generally morbid. Hat 
make or mar the clearness of the mind and vital existence. Such 
a disease as superstition grows on a person and soon produces the 
morbid or abnormal state. 

An excellent test of one's condition is found in the use 
of self-hypnotism, in the exercises to be given; for, if the mind and 
system are normal, nothing but natural sleep will ultimately result 
from them; but, if there is morbidity, the mesmeric state will fol- 
low. Despite the advantages of clairvoyance as attained through 
hypnotism, it must always be borne in mind that this condition is 
the result of a combination of hypnotic influence and morbid 
nerves. Even the better things hoped for in future discoveries 
must pass through the mud of this low channel. One excellent 
hypnotist said very frankly that the nearer a person came to in- 
sanity the better subject and clairvoyant was produced; and this 
highly morbid state was favorable to clear seeing in the sub-con- 
scious realm; an almost contradictory statement. It ought to be 
true that, if there is an inner mind possessing supernatural powers, 
it should be the offspring of health and not disease. Yet it is said 
that no great genius has ever existed who was not mentally erratic. 
In some cases, the more eccentricity, the more genius. 

It is not advisable to practice self-hypnotism. If your 
condition is normal, nothing will come out of it; if morbid, you 
will suffer from hallucinations. If you desire to become a clair- 
voyant, you must pass through the lowest stratum of the sane mind 
in order to accomplish this end. Here are some reasons offered by 
intelligent persons, for resorting to the practice of self-hypnotism. 
A man writes to us as follows: "I wish your opinion. I think I 
am right in my way of reasoning; but you can tell me whether I 
am or not. I have read the biographies of many men and women 
of genius; and the world regarded them as ecceniric. Take the 
idiotic careers of Goldsmith and Byron; were they Bane? Study 
Napoleon and Alexander; were they sane? One author declares 
that all great men are out of their minds: that they show it in theii 
way of living, and in their works. Another says no one is per* 



38 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

fectly sane. My argument is this: If geniuses are insane to a 
degree, if geniuses possess the sub-conscious power of quick and 
clear seeing, if those, who out of ordinary life possess the sane 
power, are also of morbid mental condition, why is it not true that 
self -hypnotism will awaken the spirit of genius?" Here is an 
association of similar tendencies without proof to connect one with 
the other, or to resolve them back to a common cause. 

It is true that geniuses are endowed with something of 
the clear-seeing of clairvoyance; otherwise it is not possible to ac- 
count for the great memory of famous men and women. Edward 
Everett and others declare that Daniel Webster committed to mem- 
ory the Bible, Shakespeare, Paradise Lost, and other works; but 
common minds doubt the statement as it seems impossible of be- 
lief. Actors quickly commit to memory the leading roles of long 
plays, and some have done this in a single day, although few per- 
sons off the stage will credit the assertion. We once knew a states- 
man and lawyer of national fame, of whom it was said that he had 
committed to memory most of Shakespeare and all of the Bible; 
and, as far as we could test the accuracy of the report, it seemed 
true, for he was willing to recite from these works ad libitum. If 
the sub-conscious faculty was not at work, we do not know how to 
account for the phenomenon. 

Another reason given for the development of self-hyp- 
notism is contained in the following letter: "I was bowed down 
with trouble. Night and day I prayed to get release; but, not 
being sincerely repentant, I only suffered the more. I thought oi 
mesmerizing myself, for I knew a friend who did so and forgot all 
her troubles. Do you advise it?" In our reply we cited the case 
of a woman who had read a highly sensational book and was un- 
able to divert her mind from the realism associated with the doings 
of certain characters in the story, so mesmerized herself and was 
last known in an asylum. This seems not to have deterred the in- 
quirer; for she followed in the same course and likewise entered 
an asylum. It is possible that, in both instances, the mind was 
tottering; making both of them fit subjects of this influence. They 
did not become clairvoyants, although both might have done so 
had ther reason not been dethroned. 

The principle involved in self-hypnotism is elsewhere 
stated. To develop the true condition the nervous system and 
mind must be morbid. We will first treat of the mechanical kind, 






REALM OF HYPNOTISM 39 

wherein the optic nerve does the work. Some subsequent ex- 
plantations will show why such sleep is caused in this method of 
procedure. We will say here that a sharp, fine point of light such 
as may be caught from the tiny reflection on a small, shiny ball,, 
say about a half inch to an inch in diameter, will exhaust the mag- 
netism along the optic nerve from the eyeball to the juncture 
within the brain. Its influence goes no further than this. If the 
magnetism of the nerve cannot be sustained there is no vitality 
with which to keep it alive to use. A sensation of fear attends the 
loss of sight; the brain becomes tired in its sleep-acting functions; 
and, after a number of trials lasting from ten minutes to an hour 
each, for five or ten consecutive days, a cataleptic sleep is pro- 
duced. 

This sleep is mild and unnoticeable in any peculiarities, 
if the mind is normal; otherwise it is fully mesmeric, and needs 
some other person to act as operator or suggestor of action. To 
turn it to effect, the suggestions must be made under the methods 
stated in the pages following, which are devoted to that part of the 
matter. The terms used in this connection are few and may be 
stated at this place. 

Operator. — This is the man or woman who has charge of 
the hypnotic. The operator may induce sleep by manipulation, 
or by magnetism alone. 

Manipulation. — This consists of handling the person to be 
mesmerized. It depends primarily on magnetism, but aids it b) 
rubbing the parts of the body as described in subsequent pages of 
this department. 

Free Hypnotism. — This is the putting to sleep without 
touching the body or any part of it. 

To Hypnotize. — This is the same as to mesmerize. Hyp- 
notize is derived from the Greek word meaning sleep. It is not 
strictly correct, for all sleep is not accurately described by a single 
word. 

To Mesmerize. — This is the same as to hypnotize. Mes- 
mer, in the last century, called attention to the art by lectures and 
experiments; and his name was associated with it up to recent years 
when a new word was coined from the Greek; so that "mesmerism" 
is less frequently employed to-day than "hypnotism." 

Subject. — This is the term applied to one who is sought to 
be controlled by a hypnotist. 



/ 



40 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

Hypnotic. — Any person who is, or may be hypnotized, 
whether by an operator or by self -processes. 

Catalepsy. — This is a sleep in which the senses and ordi- 
nary faculties are suspended, and the conscious mind is completely 
clouded. It is the same as hypnotic sleep. 

Sub-consciousness. — Erroneously spoken of the soul ; but 
properly applied to that mental state which is revealed by the oper- 
ator after a subject has been mesmerized to such an extent that 
there is no consciousness remaining in the ordinary mind. 

Part-hypnotism. — This means that condition which is not 
involved in sleep, but where the person is overcome to a slight ex- 
tent, or suffers a lapse of consciousness. Nearly all persons are 
thus influenced at times. 

Trance. — A supposed state of sub-consciousness ; usually 
the pretence of advertising charlatans claiming to be mediums and 
clairvoyants; but, when genuine, it is the term applied to cataleptic 
sleep, otherwise called mesmerism. 

Clairvoyance. — The name of the sub-conscious faculty 
when it reads the thoughts of other persons, and sees objects and 
events, as though matter did not separate them from the senses. 

Spiritualism. — The erroneous claim that what cannot be 
understood or explained by the reasoning faculties must, therefore, 
be the work of spirits. It is the weakest emanation of the human 
mind, and is on a par with the lowest order of mediaeval supersti- 
tion. 

To Magnetize. — This means to add and arouse vitality in 
another person. It is the opposite of mesmerize, which depresses 
vitality and puts to sleep. 

Positive Personal Magnetism. — This is used to increase 
the vitality of others, to arouse magnetism in them and to win 
them by enthusiasm or belief of an active nature. 

Negative Magnetism. — This is used to depress or drive 
out the little magnetism possessed by a mesmeric subject so that 
all attempts at resistance may fail. 

" Star-dust and vaporous light, — 
The mist of worlds unborn, — 
t/7 shuddering in the awful night 
Of winds that bring the worn." 



PLACING THE BALL TOR SELF- 
HYPNOTISM 

This ball should be of silver if it can be obtained. It 
should be about a half inch in diameter, or smaller; though one 
that is a full inch has been used successfully. A button is some- 
times employed. The surface ought to be highly polished, so as to 
reflect a fine point of light, or a brilliant dot about equal in size 
to that point of reflection that shines in every eyeball. 

It should be placed slightly above the elevation of the 
eyes, and about eighteen inches away, according to the rule given 
by a very successful teacher. Despite this claim of distance, there 
are enough instances where objects further away have produced 
hypnotism to show that distance does not materially affect the re- 
sults. A man proved that he mesmerized himself by watching a 
star in the sky through an open window. Others have done like- 
wise by looking at objects on the other side of the room. One per- 
son says that he went into a barber-shop at almost midnight; he was 
very weary and depressed, while being shaved he found that he 
could not take his eyes from a brass knob across the room, and he 
was soon fast asleep. The barber, not noticing his condition, spoke 
of matters that acted as suggestions to the man, and the latter 
began to put them into execution. A policeman was called, who 
pronounced it a case of somnambulism, which it was not, as after- 
events proved. Some dreams are mesmeric phases of sleep. 

The sitting attitude should favor a slightly backward 
inclination of the head, and a raising of the chin. This produces a 
strain on the spinal column which soon makes the general system 
weary. The holding up of the eyeballs is very difficult after a few 
minutes. The throwing back of the head soon tires the muscles at 
the base of the brain. Knowing all these things will perhaps pre- 
vent the development of hypnotism in a few cases, or delay it; but 
the operator who teaches others may describe the various positions 
and not give the reasons for them. The time required is dependent 
upon the condition of the mind and nerves, as to being morbid 
or free from abnormal influences. 

Some who are of a low order of sanity, pass at once 
into the hypnotic sleep. The stronger the mind, the more mag- 

(41) 



42 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

netic it is, and the less likelihood there is of exhausting its vitality. 
There are times of depression in every life, due generally to dis- 
appointment, bereavement or ill-health; and, the vitality then being 
weak, the experiment is more promising of success. If, however, 
the general condition is morbid, if there is a tendency to despond- 
ent moods, to fits of brooding, or to unexplainable fear of some 
calamity about to happen, the temperament is decidedly of an hyp- 
notic character, and the sleep ought to come on quickly. As these 
indications tell of the disposition toward catalepsy, they also point 
out the remedy, in case you are so afflicted and wish to save your- 
self. This remedy is the pursuit of an opposite course; instead of 
seeking to become a hypnotic, you should try to acquire magnetism. 

The length of time to be given to the test depends upon 
two facts: first, your likelihood of yielding at all to the sleep; sec- 
ond, the state of your mind and nerves, as to being morbid or other- 
wise. If there is no likelihood, you may ascertain that in a few 
days. Some teachers recommend four weeks of daily trials, giving 
from fifteen minutes to an hour each day, generally prefering the 
night when the vitality runs low; but this persistency is founded 
upon the idea that there is a chance of catching the mind when it 
is seriously depressed. On the other hand, if you will probably suc- 
cumb to the influence, you will note it in a day or two. There 
will be a cloud in the room, so black that you cannot see anything 
whatever, not the shining ball itself for a moment or two. If you 
are afraid to go on, this is the place to stop. Acquire magnetism, 
and drive away forever all the evil that has been done. 

If you decide to go on, you must either work out the rest 
yourself, or else call in the services of some person to act as su^ r - 
gestor. Anyone who is reasonably magnetic may do this. When 
you begin to feel drowsy this amateur operator should wake you up 
by a few passes of the hand before the eyes, a snap of the fingers, 
or a clap of the hand, and the words, "All right. Wake up. You're 
all right now." This should be agreed upon as the signal always 
for coming out of the drowsiness. Then he should permit you to fall 
to sleep again, and should awaken you in the same manner. As thus 
proceeds, the suggestions should be made in exactly the manner 
stated under the principles in this department, which amply treat 
of every detail of the work required. 

Hallucinations will begin to haunt you in all your 
waking hours. These are not pleasant. While it is possible to 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 43 

overcome the hypnotic influence by the cultivation of magnetism, 
it becomes harder to do so the more deeply you fall into the habit 
of being hypnotized. One is the opposite of the other. If you are 
going away from the metropolis, the farther you travel the more 
distance must be retraced in order to get to the city. There is no 
short cut for a clairvoyant to self-control. The danger of insanity 
must always be considered. To start with, the condition that best 
suits mesmeric sleep is a low order of sanity. When the subject is 
closest to the line, then the process of hypnotizing is most favored. 
When the line is crossed, and the reason is dethroned, there is no 
opportunity for mesmeric control. The instances are exceedingly 
rare where even clairvoyance has existed in such minds. 

Many strange experiences have been recorded or told of 
the subjects who have come under this peculiar influence. Some 
are well authenticated; others have the savor of invention. We 
shall cite a few only of those that are vouched for by reliable sources 
of information. Hallucinations are of two kinds: those of disease, 
and those of hypnotic cause; the latter being fully as numerous as 
the former, and differing from them in the vital fact that they are 
habitual, while the former pass away when the malady is cured. 

I 408 

Hallucinations, due to hypnotic conditions, are de- 
stroyed by magnetism. 

This is the 408th Ralston Principle. It is of importance be- 
cause there are not five persons in a hundred that are not prey at 
time to these abnormal conditions of the mind or nervous system. 
It might be said that all men and women and most children have 
had hallucinations at some period or other in the past; though per- 
haps but for a moment. 

In natural consciousness we possess five senses. Of 
these, sight is most readily disturbed by temporary hypnotism, 
which does not put to sleep, but takes us away from full self-con- 
trol for a minute or two at a time. What is called "part hypnot- 
ism" differs from the temporary influence in that it holds the mind 
in partial sway but does not cause sleep. It is preceded or accom- 
panied by depression. Hallucinations come in such moods. No 
magnetic person has them, unless there has been a temporary sus- 



44 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

pension of the vitality. As a rule all highly magnetic individuals 
are free from influences that tend to depress. 

As hypnotic conditions are always associated with morbid 
states of the mind and nerves, and these are due to physical illness 
or mental affection of some kind or other, it would not be possible 
to consider them apart. A man is less likely to be harrassed by 
hallucinations than a woman; she is more likely in her depressed 
part of the month than at other times. Some women declare that 
they are never free from morbid tendencies at' such times. Of 
course the mesmerist has more success in throwing them into the 
cataleptic sleep in these periods, and the fact is known to them. 
But our duty in this connection is to consider the mental afflic- 
tions first. 

From this line of testimony we find that some women 
have periodic hallucinations, varying in kind; while others have 
the same sort of troubles at regular times; and still others are 
affected without regularity. One woman describes her trouble ir 
this language: "Nothing can be so annoying as the coming on of 
these sights at such times; I look down when I walk, for there is 
always sure to be a face ahead looking at me, and I avoid it if I 
do not raise my eyes." She then says that the faces "are never 
two alike; nor are there more than one each month." She never 
sees a pleasant face; once it is a child suffering pain; again it is a 
man with bandaged head; or a woman with chin contorted; and the 
strangest face of all was that of an old lady which seemed to be 
"lying on a pillow gazing at me; if I looked down 1 could not see 
it, if I looked up that it was as plain as day." The cure of this 
morbid trouble was completed solely by the studies of magnetism 
in the highest exercises obtainable. 

The mere reading of the causes and operations of hyp- 
notism has saved many a mind. It is said to be impossible to hyp- 
notize a person who has once read or been told how it is done, for 
the means whereby belief may be captured are forever destroyed. 
In a number of instances we have known of the cure of hallucina- 
tions by merely reading of the story and laws which are involved 
in their origin; for, the foundation fear being gone, it is no longer 
possible to depress the mind and nerves. To read and to know 
is generally a great help in regulating the mental functions. A 
comet once caused the world to fall on its knees and trembled; now 
that the people know something of the nature of the comet, they 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 45 

cease to be awed by fear. The same law holds true in hypnotism; 
it is generally the fear that the operator has the power to obtain 
control, that yields it. So in hallucinations; when the real cause 
of them is known the terror is gone. 

To illustrate the effect of reading alone of the way such 
morbid troubles originate and are overcome, we cite the follow- 
ing instance: A woman writes, and sustains her claim by other evi- 
dence: "At this period every time I started to go from the house 
I saw a form, half man and half dragon, crouching just around the 
corner, leaning its head and part of its body forward, looking at 
me. Its eyes were torn open and horrible in their gaze. You can 
imagine my feelings when I first witnessed it. I screamed and 
went back into the house, telling the folks that there was a man 
demon around the corner. They went out cautiously, saw noth- 
ing, came back and looked pityingly at me. I realized it all. A 
month passed, and I had the same experience. I felt that my rea- 
son was being dethroned. This continued till I received your ex- 
planation of the cause; and I instantly got relief. It is a fact that 
the knowledge of the cause was sufficient to release me from this 
bondage. I then knew it was not trouble of the mind, but de- 
pression and fear that increased the influence over me." Two im- 
portant facts are educed from this case. In the first, we see that 
she suffered from a recurrence of the same hallucination; in the 
second, she cured herself by knowledge which drove away fear. 

A man who had failed in business became so depressed 
that he suffered from hallucinations of the most horrible kind. 
They came upon him at all hours of the day or night, waking or 
sleeping; but they were not constant visitors. He went for days 
without seeing any; and rarely saw more than one in twenty-four 
hours. This made him believe that it was worry and not mental 
disease that was the cause of it; but still had enough doubt about 
it to be depressed and fearful. He says: "I fought this horror as 
bravely as I could. I did not succeed in downing it, and I write 
to say that if I do not get some relief I shall put a revolver to my 
temple and blow my brains out. That may relieve me and kill the 
devils." No doctor living would have refused to certify that the 
man was mentally deranged. Yet he was not. Many a person 
lias gone to the asylum, or to the suicide's grave, who might easily 
have been rescued. Remove fear from half the candidates for in- 
sane wards, and full reason would be restored. 



46 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

The foregoing case is typical and should be considered 
more fully. The man's first hallucination was that of a widow 
with her child, lying bleeding at his feet. He was about to step 
aside, when a mass of clothing rolled over, pale arms came out ot 
a bundle of white, and bony fingers almost clutched his hands, — 
all causing him to shrink suddenly. His wife, who was walking 
with him, saw his actions and tried to pacify him. In a few sec- 
onds all had disappeared. He rubbed his wife's hands and asked 
if she was at his side, although he was looking straight down into 
her eyes. She said that his pupils seemed to be dilated and his 
gaze wild and weird. 

Later on in the week he opened a closet door and thought 
he saw a skeleton, which toppled toward him, raised its arms to 
clutch his neck, and disappeared as he shrunk back to avoid it. Ho 
shut the door, said nothing to his wife, and had never opened it 
again up to the time our attention was called to the case. His pur- 
pose was expressed as follows: "I will not tell any member of my 
family what I suffer unless they are with me; but some morning L 
will be found freed from it all." He then goes on to relate the 
worst of all his hallucinations: "I was itting in the front room 
reading. I would not spend another evening in the sitting-room 
where that closet-door is. My wife crept in, always speaking be- 
fore she entered, so as not to startle me. She sat at the table oppo- 
site me, her face partly toward mine. I heard a rustling at the 
window, then a scratching sound. I was afraid to look up. It was 
a warm evening, and the top of the window was down. The shade 
would every now and then blow out as though the wind lifted it. 
Soon a pair of hands appeared, one on each side of the shade, ex- 
tending into the room and shaking about, while the fingers wrig- 
gled and snapped. I laughed to myself, and looked down. Then I 
heard distinctly the throaty sounds of a man trying to attract my 
attention by exclaiming 'ahem!' very loudly. I looked to my wife. 
She heard nothing. The sound came louder than before. I looked 
up. The long arms had lifted the shade clear to the ceiling, and 
under it, leaning over the top of the sash, was the unshaved face of 
a hideous tramp, with eyes running steams of blood. He raised one 
knee as if to climb over the window and spring into the room. I 
threw my book at him and ran away. My wife found me on the bed 
upstairs, my face buried in the pillows." We could not refuse to 
act in his behalf. He thought himself insane, and his wife thought 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 47 

so; but he had yet time. He did not fail to take advantage of 
this art. 

The probable cause of these hallucinations was the 
oppression of his creditors. It is a fact that some minds are sensi- 
tive to evil influences, or malign dispositions. This is seen in the 
the case of a young man who, on a certain evening, felt that some- 
body was plotting to do him injury. The feeling was so keen and 
clear that he stated the matter to his elder brother, saying, "I am 
to have trouble. Who can be at work against me?" They made a 
note in writing of the time to a minute. Subsequent events veri- 
fied the belief. A secret meeting was held at the hour and malice 
predominated. In the case of the man who had failed in business, 
it seems that on or about the time when he experienced his most 
horrible visions, his creditors were in conclave seeking to get evi- 
dence, or plan proceedings to arrest him for fraud. 

The first step in such a case was to explain fully the 
cause and the operation of self-hypnotism produced by fear. We 
wrote frankly: "You have probably done wrong in some part of 
your failure, and are looking at every turn for the sheriff to enter 
and take you into custody. This fear has hypnotized you." We 
explained fully the process whereby apprehension would drive a 
person into a part mesmeric condition. In the instance cited, the 
mere knowledge did not effect a complete cure; it expelled the 
rougher hallucinations, which seemed to satisfy him. He then took 
up the study of magnetism, and, a few months later, when the crisis 
came, he met it manfully, settled with his creditors, was allowed a 
liberal reduction, and gained their confidence to such an extent 
that he resumed business, and is to-day prosperous. He now writes: 
"I am not afraid of closet-doors or windows. Your work on mag- 
netism is worth a hundred thousand dollars to me. You know that 
I am sincere, because I have brought you many converts. It is 
true that no doctor, no asylum, no treatment of any kind, except 
magnetism of the higher estates could have rescued him from in- 
sanity and suicide. A fact of so much value as this cannot be escaped 
or passed lightly by. The man in question believes in this method 
sincerely, for he sees that other persons who need just such help as 
magnetism are induced to get it in time to save disaster. 

A certain business man had become overwhelmed by 
success. He made money so fast that he could not attend to the 
thousand cares that were multiplied thereby. From morning, at 



48 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

the earliest hour, to the dragging period of midnight, he fought 
away at the intricate problems; until at last the nutrition that fed 
in brain and nerves gave out. These little ministers of life cried 
night and day for sustenance which he could not give, for his 
thoughts and plans were too intensely strong to admit of cessation. 
He could not sleep. The newspapers, which serve to suggest every 
horrifying idea that will hypnotize weakened minds, published the 
picture of a business man who, under similar circumstances, went 
to the bath-room at two o'clock in the morning, and blew out his 
brains. This was the final straw. In a state of hypnotism, he arose 
from the side of his wife and proceeded to do the same thing. She 
heard him as he stole out of the room, followed him, and caught 
his arm, just as the revolver discharged, and swerved it from its 
aim. The shock of the sound aroused him from his hypnotic mood, 
just as any quick, sharp noise may awaken one who is in a light 
cataleptic slumber. Could suicides miss the first shot, it is likely 
that they would not fire the second. 

Theosophy is a designing fraud, for its basis of con- 
viction is hypnotism; not the simple form that may find relief at 
the will of the operator, but that most horrible phase which de- 
pends on mental torture for about a year. So wilfully wicked and 
wrong is it, that we cannot allow the subject to pass at this time 
without a full exposure of the methods emplo3 7 ed. The belief is 
> captured in willing subjects by promises of experiences that are 
wonderful, if full faith and allegiance are accorded the so-called re- 
ligion. Then comes jargon unlimited, and the more of it that is 
unintelligible the better. This is the mystifying stage. 

Theosophy knows where to stop and how to turn. 
When the subject has evinced belief, and the interest is strongly 
awakened, then she is told that one year, or other period, must be 
spent in misery. This is the year of hypnotic hallucinations. 
There is no headquarters, or branch headquarters of Theosophy. 
that is not managed by a coterie of hypnotists and hypnotics. "We 
refrain from mentioning names and terms, as the honor is unde- 
served; but it is well known to any person who has passed this men- 
tal chamber of horrors what is meant and to whom we refer. A cer- 
tain "famous" leader of Theosophists claimed to be able to appear 
in two places at the same time; one in the flesh and one in form 
only. She succeeded, but the latter appearance was before hyp- 
notics, or persons partly under mesmeric influence; although the 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 49 

same phenomenon is perfectly expained under the laws of t< 
pathy, and this is fully treated of in our book entitled "Transfer- 
ence of Thought." 

Theosophists know as much about hypnotism, clairvoy- 
ance and telepathy as any set of persons in existence. They have 
their origin in India, the hot-bed of all four arts, where the best 
hypnotists and the most successful clairvoyants are to be found. 
There, the wondering natives, even of the highest castes, pay 
homage to individual mesmerists, clothed in religious authority. 
There the Brahmins are taught these occult sciences and practices 
from earliest days. There the doctrines of Theosophy had their 
origin, and thence have spread the world over, always capturing 
their devotees from among the weak-minded. You may examine 
the subject in any way, and from every standpoint you please, but 
you cannot separate it from hypnotism and clairvoyance. 

A very good example of theosophy is found in the 
story of a woman of very excellent family, but who was caught by 
this idea and lunged into the religion for the sake of ascertaining 
what she could of its workings, and then deciding for herself what 
future course she might pursue. They crushed her investigating 
spirit by demanding her full belief, telling her it was useless to 
proceed unless she yielded to such demands. This was the most 
dangerous thing she could do, as it led at once to the hypnotic con- 
dition. Then following a hidden process of securing a part-hyp- 
notism from vdiich she could not extricate herself easily. 

This was made more horrible by an oath, in which was 
her solemn obligation never to reveal what was done, under pen- 
alties both obscene and bloody. Then came the usual statement 
that for a year she would live in a certain state, from which she 
would rise to another but happier one; and so on, step by step. 
This procedure was accompanied by orgies that put her into a semi- 
hypnotic condition. Much of the year passed, and she found her- 
self in hell, w r ith all its mental tortures and agonies. The sugges- 
tions contained in her oath were so skilfully blended with the con- 
stant desire to get release by breaking the oath that was in fart 
kept under the hypnotic spell in partial degree, and went about in 
a daze. i \ 

Here are extracts from her statement made in person 
to the author: "I felt this influence following me. I felt my mind 
giving way. Somehow I caught the idea that, if I told the whole 



50 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

* 

tiling to another, I should come out of the spell. I did not wait 
for the year to expire. I went to a lady friend and made a clean 
breast of it, breaking my oath very flatly. ISot only did I not suffer 
any of the terrible penalties, but I ceased to suffer from the hor- 
rible influence that had hounded me. I was once more happy. 
My mind was clear. Neither my husband nor any member .of my 
family ever got one bit of information from me on this subject.'' 
Here it could be clearly seen that she was under an hypnotic spell 
which she voluntarily kept alive by thinking of the oath, as well 
as by giving attention to the meetings of the leaders. 

That theosophy is trickery is easily proved if any person 
who is at all familiar with the methods employed in hypnotism will 
take the pains to compare the two courses of procedure. That in 
her case the oath was a fraud, was seen when she broke it; for no 
penalties were incurred, and those that had been suffered while she 
kept the obligations were dispelled when she broke them. The 
same experiences have been endured, by others, and in no instam 
has there been any evidence of influences higher than those of m< -- 
merism. A man wrote in the same vein: "If I give myself up to 
the theosophic belief, I fear I shall become partly deranged; but I 
do not find that many are actually made insane. Some are, but 
they may have been weak-minded to have gone into the society. 
I think we all are. Still I wished to know what it was, and here I 
am, with strange feelings that utterly destroy my usefulness in life, 
unfit me for business and make me ashamed to look squarely into 
the faces of my family." We explained the whole subject to him, 
and told him to break his oath to some man friend. This he did 
and wrote its that he secured perfect release at once. Some years 
after he said that no penalties were ever suffered, and he was glad 
that he broke his oath. 

We have records of a dozen persons who went through 
the year of torture, and even spent other years in a similar men- 
tal hell without any change. They at times had visions of insane 
ecstacy, such as may be witnessed by going into the ecstatic ward 
of any asylum; but these brief periods were due to the suggestions 
which were made by operators who concealed their methods under 
ritualistic pretences. A man discovered this kind of hypnotic at- 
tempt to control him; he had been a theosophist for five years with- 
out getting any farther than hell, and he demanded some fulfil- 
ment of their promises of heaven: so. to -appease him. they tried 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 51 

to force the conviction that he was the oilier life of a greal Brah- 
min that had once lived in India. But he had been studying mi 
merism, and he refused to allow the operators about him to man- 
ipulate his faculties into cataleptic sleep. lie and they parted 
company. 

Theosophy is now being fully exposed by some skilled 
hypnotists who have entered its ranks, and who are raising the tem- 
perature to an exceedingly high degree. We hope to have proof 
enough of the results they obtain to lay the whole before our stu- 
dents in the new work which is clue a year hence, to be called 
"Mind and Matter," which is to follow this. Enough is now 
known and substantiated over and over again to warrant the state- 
ment that theosophy is merely the practice of hidden hypnotism, 
clothed in garments of religious pretence and made convincing in 
weak and in strong minds by clairvoyant proofs which are made so 
skilfully as to be concealed and not seen in their true guise. 

Before theosophy is fully understandable, it is neces- 
sary to study all the principles preceding and all that follow in this 
department. When you know the laws and the means whereby the 
belief is captured and sub-conscious faculty partly laid bare, you 
will see how easy it is to dupe even those persons who lay claim 
to high intelligence. Proof is everywhere demanded. It takes 
more than ordinary wisdom to reject it; and clairvoyance, under 
cover of other names, will furnish proofs of things that necessarily 
convince men who are not versed in the laws of sub-conscious work- 
ings. We advise all persons to read and re-read very carefully the 
pages that follow, for therein is a full explanation of these sup- 
posed inexplicable phenomena. 

Christian Science is another phase of hypnotism, and 
there is not a prominent person connected with it who will not be 
convinced of the truth of this assertion when all the* facts are care- 
fully compared with the explanations made in and throughout this 
department. The "great" clergyman who has been able in suc- 
cessive years to raise nearly a million dollars of funds at special 
meetings, is no more than a skilled hypnotist, whether he knows it 
or not; and the fact that he can impress all critics with his full 
honesty, only tends to make him a greater power. Sincerity is one 
of the best essentials of success in this art. 

It may be claimed that these scientists who love to 
parade in the name -'Christian" so as to win the approval of those 



52 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

better classes who respect all that is truly Christian, are devoutly 
sincere in their beliefs. So is every hypnotic subject. So is every 
operator, at least in his own powers over others. The most truly 
and devoutly earnest and sincere faces to be seen on earth are those 
that occupy the front row at the mesmerist's public exhibition. 
They sit on the platform, thoroughly imbued with the belief that 
all he says is so. 

If he asks one of them to give him all the money, jewelry 
and other valuables in his possession, the subject will yield them 
up only too gladly. This is no more than was done summer after 
summer at a Christian Science meeting, when over a hundred 
thousand dollars was raised in two hours. That the men an( 
women who gave up jewelry were hypnotized is seen in the fact 
that some of them afterwards asked for them; one woman, who had 
given diamonds, bringing a suit, at law for their recovery. She 
with others described the influence of the meeting as something 
that could not be resisted. The will was overcome for the time 
being. 

Healers and science-doctors who call themselves Chris- 
tians are either tricksters, dupes or non compos mentis. Many of 
the dupes are undoubtedly honest. Many of the men and women 
who are credited with intelligence, some with unusual sagacity, 
some with business ability, are not insane in the usual sense of the 
word, but are "touched" mentally. Here is a bright merchant, 
who believes sincerely in Christian science, and he is cited as an ex- 
ample of the kind of persons who follow that standard. Of him 
they say, "He is no fool; see how successful he is in business."' A 
year goes by. He is not insane. His views on healing simply show 
the common fact that a sound mind may have its deficient spot. 
Another year passes, trade weakens; he cannot grasp the deep line of 
success; the spot is growing, and, some day, like ninety per cent, of 
all in trade, his business goes under. He is a doting fellow, willing 
to work for a pittance; and the tainted spot in his brain is still 
growing. If he dies soon enough, he will escape the asylum. There 
is but one path to travel in that "science;" every signboard points 
to insanity. 

In that class of believers, it is easy to find persons who 
apparently are of the soundest minds; but their lives, if watched 
for a few years, will invariably give proof of a tainted spot in the 
brain. It is well known that a sane and responsible person may be 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 53 

"wrong" in a certain department of the mind. Many eases are now- 
coming to the front, and the criminal law is at work in its efforts 
to send these "healers" where they belong, to the penitentiary. A 
man, his wife and her brother were Christian Scientists, all living 
in one house. A child was taken ill and died under their care, or 
lack of it. Nothing was done for the little sufferer, except to per- 
form orgies and incantations as inane and barbaric as those de- 
pended upon by the savages of Mexico in the time of Cortez. In- 
vestigation showed that, had a physician been called, the child 
would have lived. 

A little girl ten years old had swallowed a large tack 
which lodged in her throat, and could easily have been extracted by 
a physician; and, although two skilled doctors lived near by, the 
Christian Science parents and a female, who was a "healer," told 
the child that there were no such things as sickness and pain; that 
they were merely the results of "error;" and they sat around, carry- 
ing on their incantations all day and all night, until the sufferings 
of the child developed into convulsions, and she died in agony. 
Tben the three adults, the Christian Scientists, declared that it was 
God's will to take away the precious life, and that His will must 
be done. If this trio were not lunatics, what were they? How 
can their conduct be accounted for on any principle of complete 
sanity? Yet there are persons of apparent respectability and seem- 
ingly good sense, who are non compos mentis on this subject. 

One of the dangerous things connected with science 
"healers" is the fact that there are cases of recovery from illness 
for which they get the credit. Men and women go about shouting 
their praise for what they believe to have been the cause of their 
miraculous rescue from a chronic malady or something worse. 
They are honest enough in such claims; they believe them to be 
true, and their belief is unshakable. Leaving out the hair-brained 
individuals, who cannot help believing in anything that is told 
them, there is not a single case of recovery from a serious illness 
that will stand the test of analysis. Investigation shows that nearly 
all the subjects became more careful of themselves in habits of diet 
and exercise; the tw r o very things that will induce good health 
quicker than all else. A certain "miraculous cure," much paraded 
by the "healers," turned out to be that of a person whose life was 
completely revolutionized by Ealstonism at the time. 

It is supposed that mind does influence the material 



54 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

part of the body. This subject is thoroughly treated of in a high 
degree work not yet printed; but it will suffice to say here that 
the mind has but two general directions of influence, that which 
brightens or enhances the vitality, and that which depresses it. 
The mind is capable of producing death if it can lower the vitality 
to a certain degree; and it has also the power of brightening the 
nervous forces wonderfully. It cannot work upon nothing. If one 
lung has perished in disease, mind cannot replace it. If a kidney 
has been destroyed, a new one cannot be "thought in." A well- 
known clergyman, whose church is in this line of faith, permitted 
a woman, at an annual gathering, to declare before thousands of 
persons that "faith" had filled up and perfected a decayed tooth for 
her; a totally impossible thing. There was some dishonesty in 
allowing the assertion to go unchallenged. Investigation showed 
that a tooth which had a very shallow cavity had worn or broken 
off smooth. 

Something cannot be made of nothing. The most 
remote influence of mind, soul, essence, spirit or supernaturalism 
must have matter or substance to work upon. Massive orbs, giants 
in material, inhabit space in every direction, and out of them all 
life is made. The "unseen" realms may as easily be conceived of 
matter as of a void influence; for no man can "see" the realms of 
the sky; only the light they shed is discernible. So, the human 
body, which is merely a vitalized deposit of food, is material in all 
its functions. Belief of the mind may build its matter, but cannot 
supply it. Faith is a strong factor when its coadjutor is regime; 
by which pure air, pure food and hygienic habits arc assured. 
These are "works," or the efforts to execute the demands of £iith. 
Those "healers," who preach that faith alone will curt 1 , are chal- 
lengers of the Bible they profess to follow, which condemns faith 
without works. A man who depends on belief, mind or faith, in- 
stead of his legs, to take himself out of a burning building, will 
furnish evidence of the fact that natural laws proceed in their oper- 
ations, despite all efforts to sidetrack them by superstitious incan- 
tations under the name of faith-cure, mind-cure, or Christian 
science. In every age falsehood has clothed itself in the garb of 
some holy title; and, when exposed, it cries out "persecution." In 
the same sense the murderer is "persecuted" by justice. 

Lives of innocent children are sacrificed by faith-cur- 
ists, or "science healers;" and were it not for this fact it might not 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 55 

be worth while for the authorities to Interfere. Few cases come 

to the attention of the criminal courts, because the public is igno- 
rant of the facts, or individuals hesitate to make complaint. But 
a canvass gives an approximate idea of the result of such practi* 
it is estimated that two thousand children, at least, in the past few 
years, have been thus sacrificed, all of whom might easily have been 
saved had regular physicians been called in time. Christian Science 
teaches that sympathy must be eliminated from the heart. The 
helpless sufferers, who yearn for love and caresses in their mothers' 
arms, are met by mental coldness, and lay themselves down to die 
in the shadows of barbaric superstition. With the same cruelty, 
the parents of a more savage period threw their children alive into 
the spiked arms of hed-hot images of brass, and ordered drums to 
be played so that they might not hear the agonized screams of the 
little ones. No mind is perfectly sane; no age is entirely free from 
superstition; and the dual taint of modern civilization is an old, 
old sore. 

Keep well if you can, and you can if you will. All ill- 
ness is due to somebody's carelessness or ignorance. When sick- 
ness comes, use your best judgment in meeting it, and take no 
chances through delay in calling a skilled physician in regular prac- 
tice; one who is publicly qualified, licensed and recognized in the 
medical profession. Do not set up your will against his; but, on 
the other hand, you may help him very much by your Ealston 
methods which always assist the efforts of nature to heal and cure: 
and nature's course is the highest aim of the true physician. 

Nothing is in a more unsatisfactory condition than the 
use which seems to be derivable from the influence of one mind 
over another, when that use runs on the negative or hypnotic side 
of magnetism. There may be a change for the better, and it may 
come soon. The fact that great men and women have at times a 
lofty endowment of the sub-conscious faculty, points the finger 
of hope in a higher direction. Against this is the low, pranky and 
frivolous operation of clairvoyance, which seems no more than a 
mind let loose among valuables that it cannot secure. Let us keep 
at work studying out brighter prospects and better fruitage. 

Doctoring is largely conducted on the theory of hyp- 
notic influence. Belief in the efficacy of medicine, and fear of 
disaster if the doctor fails, work together to help the patient at 
times. Something concerning this will be found in later depart- 



56 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

ments of the present volume. We -believe in the necessity and 
value of service of the honest physician; and he alone, if skilful, is 
all the professional help needed in case of sickness, except such aid 
as may be desired from trained nurses. Honest doctors and Eal- 
stonism will win all the battles of health. 



1 409 1 



A person may be self-hypnotized and greatly in- 
jured by the operation of fear. 

This is the 409th Kalston Principle. There are various kinds 
of fear. The most common is that of misfortune and poverty. It 
has sent millions to an untimely grave. The usual fear of the 
mediaeval ages is no longer universal; it was the continual appre- 
hension of murder. Then no human life was safe; and those who 
retired at night were in doubt of rising in the morning. 

Later on this feeling of insecurity changed to that of 
assault or attack. But this kind of fear is rare, except in Ken- 
tucky among the mountaineers, and on the border-lines of civiliza- 
tion where the far West blends into the population of the Pacific 
slope. Fear of bodily harm is not common at this date where laws 
are respected and enforced. When one kind of apprehension gives 
way another takes its place, and the mind is kept busy extricating 
itself from its moods. In this age the fear that the means of liv- 
ing will be taken away, is probably paramount to all other mental 
depressions. This was not so when people got their full susten- 
ance and support from the land, — nor would it be so if the acres 
that are prostituted to waste were made the basis of human supply 
as they did in the wealthy colonial days. 

Conscience is the cause of fear to a much larger extent 
than is believed. Not only as a moral influence, but in its alarms 
that portend danger to reputation or liberty, it drives the good man 
and the bad man on to the reefs of wreck and misery. The des- 
perate criminal is an animal, not a human being: and animals suf- 
fer neither remorse nor regret.. To rise to the plane of humanity, 
a felon must either fear or command by the possession of a supreme 
magnetism which knows no fear; and in the latter case he would 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 57 

be too honest a man to commit crime The acquisition of mag- 
netism is directly opposite the tendency which makes wrongdoing 

•easy. 

Most crimes are committed under hypnotic con- 
ditions, and the prevention is to be had more frequently in the 

prior training than at the moment of the offence. Absolute cer- 
tainty of apprehension and punishment will deter all persons who 
are sane, and nearly all who are insane, as we shall see in later 
pages. But there is doubt of being punished and thus the man is 
lost. In a subsequent realm of this volume, the conditions of 
hypnotic influence will be considered fully, and perhaps some new 
light may be gathered on the question of criminal responsibility. 
The dazed condition and the animal nature that seems to invite it, 
are entitled to examination. We now have the direct laws of this 
.art before us. 

| 410 I 



Hypnotism puts to sleep the conscious will and 
awakens a morbid condition of the sub-conscious 
faculty. 

This is the 410th Ralston Principle. The science and art of 
mesmerizing, which word is being displaced by the older term hyp- 
notizing, have been known in one form or another, generally 
crudely, for several thousand years. Briefly stated, the effect of 
the practice is to shut off or put to sleep the conscious or regular 
faculty of the brain, and open up the sub-conscious or intuitive 
faculty. 

The absence of any really scientific laws on the sub- 
ject, the belief that the practice was quackery, the limitation of it 
to certain undesirable uses, the confining of the power of hypnot- 
izing to persons of generally low standing, and the fact that the 
brightest minds failed to acquire the art while the dullest suc- 
ceeded, all conspired to make it an undignified if not a disreputable 
profession; and it drifted away from its true base to such an extent 
that few works of authority are obtainable on the subject, while 
the world of sensational literature is crowded with its extrava- 
gances. Even at this day the public are considered gullible, if we 



58 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

may judge from the advertisements that appear in magazines and 
periodicals, seeking purchasers of books and courses of study on 
mesmerism, hypnotism, personal magnetism and other similar mat- 
ters. 

That the art was practiced thousands of years ago, is 
known to any close student of history or of the Bible. Xo nation 
was exempt from the practice. The credulity of the masses was 
such that, aided by a prevailing superstitious fear, they quickly 
accorded to any man who could wield the power, the rank of healer, 
doctor, priest or almost anything he sought. Humanity does not 
change in forty centuries so that one age would differ materially 
from another in this regard; and it is not only reasonable, but e< - 
tain, that the hypnotist had his favorite subject always attending 
him to give evidence of thought-reading, clairvoyance, warnings, 
predictions, and the like. 

The lowest types of minds have been successful as hyp- 
notists more often than those above the average. It seems t<» have 
cropped out by accident, and to have as much surprised tl. ra- 

tor as anyone else. Indolent men and lazy hags in the days of 
witchcraft fell into the practice as though by natural endowment; 
and the popular fear of the black art helped to make victims in 
great numbers. As most persons, to some extent at least, may 
hypnotized; and, as those who produce the influence are not alwi 
able to undo its effects; the result is demoralizing, and must ha 
been seriously so in the dark age-. 

When persons are saturated with fear, even the half- 
qualified witches, as they were then called, could produci - na- 
tions akin to the possession of devils and all the hallucinations thai- 
fell upon the lives of those who were bewitched. A- there was a 
firm belief in the existence and power of the witches, and as the 
evidence produced at trials was conclusive of their work though 
not always of their identity, we must regard the pra< an 

established fact. To laugh at the errors of belief is not in our 
province. Only ignorance doubts the history of the \\ ,• 

know it was wrong to put sorcerers to death: just as it would be 
wrong to-day to execute hypnotists. They are one and the same. 
To put a person into mesmeric sleep, it is necessary I 
catch his belief, and this is obtained in one of two ways, either : 
willing consent or by inspiring fear. As the reasoning faculti 3 
are eliminating superstition, thai greatesl of all hypnotizing in- 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM ■ 59 

fluences, the opportunity for bewitching large numbers is much 
less now than in former ages. Jn 1793, when the last witch of the 
world was officially put to death at Posen, the better judgment of 
mankind had come to see that the so-called witchcraft was the fault 
of those influenced rather than of those who wielded the strange 
power; for, twenty years earlier, in 1773, Dr. Mesmer gave to 
Europe the results of certain experiments that coincided with the 
work of sorcery. 

A person may be a witch and not know it until some 
other person makes the fact apparent. The word witch is applied 
to both man and woman; but generally to woman, from the fact 
that the German tribes for nearly two thousand years gave over to 
their women the profession of healing by laying on of hands, by 
mysterious herbs and peculiar ceremonies, that may or may not 
have been akin to hypnotism. The male-witch was sometimes 
called a wizard, though not generally. It was a belief in England 
and Germany that out of every one hundred witches one was a wiz- 
ard and ninety-nine were hags. From evidence of the nature of 
their work as compared with that now at hand, it is clear that 
witchcraft was hypnotism, that the subjects were easily bewitched 
because of the credulous condition of their minds in those ages 
that were darkened by superstition, and that the witches were 
blameless in most cases, for the reason that the power is generally 
possessed before the owner knows it. 

Both sides of this matter may receive light from the fol- 
lowing experiences which have been verified, as stated, and corrobo- 
rated by other similar cases. We cite the simplest of them, as they 
show the principle clearly enough. A woman makes the following 
statement: "I am not a clairvoyant, nor do I know anything of it, 
one way or the other. I am ignorant of hypnotism. A year or 
more ago I was visiting a friend for a few weeks. She was neither 
a clairvoyant nor hypnotist, and had no interest in anything of the 
kind. I found her one clay looking so steadily at my eyes that I was 
frightened, but she seemed more afraid than I was. I did not 
dare look at her; but at times did so briefly as one looks or glances 
at others. In each instance she seemed to lose control of herself. 
I cut my visit short and came home. A few days later I received 
a letter stating that she was under my influence, and describing her 
condition." As advice was asked for in both cases, we directed the 
unfortunate subject to take up the study of personal magnetism 



60 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

which invariably cuts of! all hypnotic power. In the case of the 
woman, who so suddenly found herself thus qualified to influence 
others, we advised a study of this higher course, whereby she be- 
came enabled to withdraw her control at will. 

A subject of the same woman two years later sent a 
very vivid description of the first influence exerted over; for ic 
seems that the hypnotist, finding herself with the power, chose to 
use it occasionally, and we have since learned of eight instances 
in which she controlled others, two of them men. The case re- 
ferred to was that of one who, like the first, was influenced without 

the intention of the operator. She writes: "1 thought Mrs. "s 

eyes seemed brilliant, one more than the other. This caused me 1 
look at the brighter one at every chance I got, even when she was 
not looking at me. When she did look, I felt myself getting rest- 
less, and my eyes rolled. I was conscious of becoming drowsy, and 
then fell asleep." After this description she goes on to relate some 
hallucinations that frightened her; one of which was the fear that 
she was losing her mind. In another case the subject, after being 
freed from sleep, saw dark birds in every corner of the room. 

So common have been such experiences that it is waste 
time to enumerate more. The study of witchcraft shows exactly 
the same conditions; but it must be remembered that the subje< - 
in those days were all, or nearly all, affected by some phase of re- 
ligion. The belief in a personal God, a personal devil, and angels 
good and bad, led to the further idea that there was a malignant 
spirit abroad empowered with the right to cause misery and dis 
Men, women and children often hypnotized themselves with the in- 
fatuation that they contained devils, as did the people of old Pal- 
estine; and, being under the control of this belief, they did then 
just what would be done now under the same conditions; they acted 
as if devils were in them. 

Although too horrible for the ordinary experiments of 
modern practice, some hypnotists, desiring to show the resemblance 
of witchcraft to hypnotism, have made the suggestion of "having 
devils" to their subjects, with the results as expected: and every- 
thing that w r as associated with the old davs of witchery mav be 
brought out now. It must be remembered that self-hypnotism lias 
always existed; that a person may come under influence without 
the effort or even the knowledge of the one who owns the pow< 
and that readiness of belief is the strongest known stimulant to 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 61 

this end. Doubting minds are rarely ever affected. In the study of 
ignorance it is found that belief is more absolute, and more easily 
captured, in proportion as the intelligence is low. 

The hypnotic experience, formerly known as witchcraft, 
can be followed or traced through the centuries from the dawn of 
history; but it burst forth in the fifteenth century as a mania, no 
doubt receiving its impetus from the edict of Pope Innocent VIII, 
in 1484, charging the Inquisition to hunt up and put to death all 
witches and sorcerers. As Germany had been the birthplace of the 
medicine women, or "healers," the papal bull was intended prima- 
rily for them; and two zealots of that country, in 1489, drew up the 
famous "Witch-Hammer," in which you may find the whole doc- 
trine of witchcraft set forth in systematic form, and rules set down 
for the detection and trial of the crime. These rules afterward be- 
came a sort of authority, and were believed in for a long time after 
their authors, Kraemer and Sprenger, were dead; although they are 
ridiculous at the present period. 

Other edicts followed and produced untold misery. It 
seems strange that the heads of the Christian church, the repre- 
sentatives of the best prevailing education, should originate this 
suffering. In 1494, Pope Alexander VI; in 1521, Pope Leo X, and 
in 1522, Pope Adrian VI issued bulls to the same effect. In Bam- 
berg, 600 persons were burned or hanged for sorcery in four years; 
in Wurzburg, 900 were executed; in Geneva, in the year 1516, 500 
persons were burned in four months; and over 1,000 in Como 
district in 1524; all for this one cause. In England, in 1562, the 
statute of Elizabeth made witchcraft a capital crime, whether it was 
practiced to the injury of another or not. These laws implied that 
those who possessed the power were able to control it. In the reign 
of James VI, of England, following the dawn of that splendid 
renaissance, the frenzy burst out in its full fury. The king wrote 
a treatise on trm subject, and his "witch-finders" went forth to 
scour the land for the offenders. 

In enlightened England during the Long Parliament, 
fully 3,000 persons were put to death because of witchcraft. The 
mania appeared in America, the Salem tragedies of 1691, '92, be- 
ing the culmination here. As the people believed in the reality of 
the sorcery, and attributed their misfortunes to these maligned 
persons, it became an easy matter to hasten their arrest and execu- 
tion by the concoction of lies without limit. No more picturesque- 



62 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

and highly illuminated falsehoods have ever been invented, than 
those which surrounded the witches of the seventeenth century; 
and few persons were guiltless of this malice. 

Times have changed. When the renaissance arose with 
its promise of better light, the dark clouds of superstition would 
not dissolve till they had shadowed a majority of the homes of 
England with the gaunt figure of death, either for creed, sorcery 
or politics; and, were it not for the fact that all persons must die 
sooner or later, the wide swath cut by fanaticism must have ma- 
terially reduced the population of that country. But times have 
changed. What was then witchcraft is now hypnotism. The art 
that held religious devotees, including potentates, under the sway 
of self-appointed leaders in other ages and climes, and that wrought 
such havoc in the shifting centuries of a later era, is now recog- 
nized as a reality in modern science, possessing some qualities that 
entitle it to careful investigation. It has long enough been han- 
died by charlatans in lectures and treatises of a highly sensational 
character; and it is now time for the facts. 

Animals other than man may be hypnotized, although 
they are not reasoning beings capable of holding a fixed belief. 
Yet their minds do, in fact, adhere to ideas; and all animal training 
proceeds on this basis. It seems that some fear, or some fancy, - 
aroused by a small shining spot, especially if it is set in surround- 
ings different from itself. That which will excite attention in a 
human being is known to do the same in animals: with the excep- 
tion that it is harder to hold the brain of the latter. A bird - - 
the glitter in the eye of the snake, or of the eat : at first watches it 
out of curiosity; then becomes dazed, and is caught. A small shin- 
ing ball will rivet the attention, but it lacks the depth and peculiar 
scintillation of the live eye, and, consequently, it requires more 
time to produce stupor. 

Many persons have gone into a mesmeric sleep, induced 
wholly by a small, bright object. Birds can sometimes be mad-' 
stupid in the same way. though the fascination is lacking. When 
you enter a dark room in which a cat is seen only by the two shining 
orbs, a peculiar phosphorescence dances before you. In the light 
this changes to green and gold. You watch the dancing streams 
of the aurora in the cold northern skies, and they hold your atten- 
tion. What you may find in the glitter of a tiny ball is intensified 
by the coloring and swinging of little masses of light that are 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 63 

strange enough to cause you to wonder at them. No wonder the 
bird looks till the will is paralyzed. 

Some writers go so far as to claim that the mesmeric 
power is a kind provision of nature, intended to lessen pain and 
fear when the animal of prey seizes its victim. Some testimony 
lias come from persons who have been rescued from the jaws of 
beasts after losing consciousness. Of course it is understood that 
humanity is not intended by nature as food for animals; but the 
general law covers all life, and suits each individual case. From 
private and published accounts, some facts come to us that seem 
to corroborate this theory. In the attempt to find a reason for 
the existence of everything good and bad in this world, it has been 
suggested that hypnotism is a condition of painlessness estab- 
lished to release the prey from all suffering; and, being a general 
provision, all animal life is affected by it. This cannot be the only 
use of the condition. Most gifts of nature have two or more uses. 

In getting testimony from the prey themselves, we may 
look to dumb creation first. A mouse taken from a cat was un- 
injured and free from bruise as nearly as could be ascertained. 
Although it ran about when in the power of the cat, it gave no 
evidence of suffering. The bird flies about the head of the snake, 
making its circles smaller, and goes peacefully to its doom as 
though to die were pleasanter than living. The lamb shows no 
sign of suffering when the hot breath of its slayer is upon it. A 
large wolf carried a ewe nearly a mile as tenderly as the mother cat 
carries her kitten; and was shot just in the act of plunging its 
teeth into the lamb's throat. The latter had no bruise whatever, 
nor did it give evidence of pain. It seemed dazed for quite a while, 
as though some influence still overawed it; as does a human subject 
whom the hypnotist fails to release from the spell. 

A child was carried by the clothing in the teeth of a bear 
to the place where the savage beast intended to make a feast on its 
life. A hunter lay in wait at the spot and by a good aim slew the 
bear without harming the child. The latter who was six years old 
gave an accurate account of its feelings when it saw the animal 
coming toward it; showing great horror at first, then a light from 
two big balls of fire, and finally a sleepy condition. It seemed to 
regard the journey in the clutches of the bear as a dream; and said 
it was not a bit frightened till the gun was fired, then the sleep 
changed to wakefulness and fear. 



64 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

In another case a child eight years old was caught up by 
the shoulder and held in the jaws of a bear for some minutes be- 
fore it was rescued; and, although the flesh was badly torn, there 
was no pain at the time the teeth went in, nor until the wounds 
were being dressed. Hunters in the jungle have told many ex- 
periences that corroborate this law of relief from pain. One inci- 
dent is as good as a hundred where the same thing is repeated. A 
man missed in his aim at the vital region of a lion and was seized 
and carried to the lair, where the young cubs were given a lesson 
in dining on human flesh; much in the same way as the mother 
dog yields some of her food to her young. He felt them devouring 
his legs from the hips down to the knees, and the old lion had com- 
menced to bite out a chunk from his shoulder when a party of 
hunters came up in time to kill the animals. The unfortunate man 
lived four days, and stated that he felt no pain whatever from the 
time he was seized to the time he was brought away from the scene. 

This and numerous other incidents confirm what has 
been well said by writers, that when the beast of prey seizes its vic- 
tim the latter is thrown into a state of hypnotism and suffers no 
pain. On the other hand it experiences a dreamy, happy feeling 
that causes the tragedy of nature to lose all its sting. This should 
be so. It is ordained that one life shall eat another, and the tor- 
ture and cruelty should be considered sufficient in the fact and 
constant fear of such disaster, without adding the excruciating 
suffering of tearing flesh and nerves asunder, while the act is in 
progress. Why life should devour life is not within the province 
of this book to consider; but belongs to the higher volume in the 
present course called All Existence. It seems that no speck- - 
capes this fate at times. Even the toughest have been slaughtered 
for food. ) 



"So the multitude goes, like the flowers or the :, 
That -withers awajp to let others succeed; 
So the multitude comes, even those zee behold. 
To repeat every tale that has often been told." 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 65 

i«{ u> ?rc 

One person may be hypnotized by another without 
the latter's aid or knowledge. 

This is the 411th Balston Principle. The brain of man is 
curiously divided into parts that think for reasoning purposes, 
parts that think for mere muscular uses, and parts that think for 
functional action. These are somewhat dependent upon each 
other. They constitute the regular work of life; deal with plans, 
with action, with organic operations; and cooperate with the senses. 
Where such brain divisions are located is known to a slight extent 
only, except in a general way. 

Beyond the conscious brain above described, somewhere 
within it, or concealed in the body, is another faculty that cannot 
be so easily discussed; and, although the regular brain involves 
great problems in itself, this embraces others far more stupendous. 
Many things are known about it, but there is yet much to learn. 
It is agreed by those scientists who have been able to reach a sat- 
isfactory conclusion on some points, that the sub-conscious brain 
attends regularly to its duties night and day without need of rest, 
that it does so without the knowledge of the regular brain, and 
in a realm exclusively its own. One other point, and the most im- 
portant to which they agree, is that the sub-conscious brain comes 
to the front as soon as the regular brain is hypnotized. 

From a close observation of experiments it seems that 
the inner brain is always at work and always conscious to itself; but 
that the only time it has any connection or cooperation with the 
outer brain is when intuition is strong, as in catching some scent 
of danger, some thought from another, or some idea out of the 
vast realm of knowledge as by inspiration. It seems willing to 
allow the outer brain to have full sway in its associations with the 
details of this life, and is apparently making provisions for some- 
thing beyond. These are surmises, drawn from the fact that the 
inner brain works so quietly and untiringly. 

When the conscious brain is put to sleep by a process 
that keeps the body awake, the sub-conscious faculty, which is the 
so-called inner brain, at once asserts itself and stands ready to obey 
any suggestion- that may be given it. This kind of sleep is induced 



66 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

in a number of ways, as we shall show; and one of the most com- 
mon is that which proceeds from the unintended influence of 
another individual. An instance has been known of a boy four- 
teen years of age being hypnotized by a cat; another of a girl of 
fifteen falling asleep whenever she watched the eyes of a parrot; 
and most cases of the cataleptic order have their origin in some 
kind of unintentional hypnotism. 

Self-mesmerism is different from this just described. 
It is caused from within bv fear or some other a^encv which ab- 
sorbs the belief, annihilates the will and opens up the sub-con- 
scious faculty. In cases under the present principle, the sleep may 
be partly aided by some inward influence, but it is really induced 
by the unintended power of an individual, who may be unaware 
of it. Many persons have exerted some such control as much to 
their surprise as to others. A young lady entexedrine room where 
a dozen or fifteen persons were present, and was instantly seized 
with a peculiar sensation which she avoided by going to the next 
room. She stated the circumstance to a friend, and they resolved 
to ascertain the cause. 

After passing in and out several times she located the 
person who held this control over her: a young man who really 
was innocent of any intention in the matter. They had never met 
before, nor was there any recognition when she first entered the 
room. It seems that he was gazing fixedly at a picture that hui 
by the side of the entrance, and the light of the room was reflects 
in a peculiar manner from his eyeballs. This caught her gaze and 
she was compelled to retire from it. It was a mere stimulus, how- 
ever, to the effect; for the young man was in reality an embn 
hypnotist and did not know it: nor did lie understand the art in 
any way. Other cases of unintended and unwilling control a 
known; and it is probable that partial influence is exerted in 
thousands of cases every day where neither party is conscious of the 
fact. They experience the condition and account for it as due to a 
headache or some bit of indigestion. 

"IVe loved, and yet wv knew it not. — 
For loving seemed like breathing then ; 
We found a heaven in every spot : 
Saw angelsl too. in all good men : 
tAnd dreamed i _ and <r\ i 



REALM OF HTPXOTISM 67 

1 4.2 | 

Magnetism must be absent in the person hypnotized. 

This is the 412th Ralston Principle. It has been claimed that 
the hypnotic state is induced by animal magnetism. This is not 
true, except in so far as magnetism is the determining force which 
gives one person the power at that juncture when thought-waves 
have neutralized each other. This point should be clearly under- 
stood, as it is the key to the whole matter; and what is said here 
should be considered in connection with the next of our principles. 

Under nearly all circumstances most persons possess 
magnetism; and what is said throughout this work explains the 
meaning of this statement. There are times when magnetism 
runs low or ebbs away, and life seems weak. The muscles may 
have some strength, and the vegetable functions, as of respiration, 
circulation and digestion, may continue their work; but nervous 
life and thought seem suspended. When these conditions are mild 
they are called lapses, and are brief in point of time. When they 
are severe they resemble, or pass into, catalepsy; which is a com- 
plete absence of magnetism or nervous vitality. 

In the cataleptic condition there is a suspension of mind, 
memory and will. The face retains whatever expression may be 
on it at the time; if a smile, that lasts through the whole period: 
if a look of pain, the same remains to the end. The muscles are 
likewise fixed; if an arm be raised it will stay where put; a limb 
will assume and hold any attitude given it; and the whole body 
responds to any change willingly and makes no motion of its own. 
Pain is not felt. The arm mav be cut off without suffering. This 
is the true cataleptic condition. It is akin to hypnotic sleep, ex- 
cept that in the latter state the sub-conscious mind awakens and 
governs the body not of its own volition but by suggestion from 
another. 

Physicians see no real difference between catalepsy and 
mesmeric sleep, except in the fact that the sub-conscious faculty 
may be awakened in the latter. It is true that some hypnotists 
fail to arouse their subjects and thus leave them in catalepsy, from 
which they are released with some difficulty, and always with more 
or less injury. The genuine trance mediums, of which there are 



68 UXITERSAL MAGNETISM 

but few in the world, pass into this -condition; and occasionally 
seem dead to all appearances as far as the uses of the body and 
mind are concerned; the only physical life being in the vegetable 
functions of respiration, circulation and digestion, and the only 
mental existence being in the sub-conscious faculty. It is not true 
that catalepsy develops the trance-medium, or the hypnotic sub- 
ject; but it is true that a trance-state and hypnotism result in cata- 
lepsy. 

This supposed disease is associated with every kind of 
revelation or supernatural sight into things, realms and worlds that 
cannot be penetrated by the perception of the ordinary mind. 
When the evidence is entirely lacking no one is able to say what 
was the condition of a person at the time of some special exercise 
of this extraordinary power; so the result is accepted without com- 
ment. But where all the attendant facts are known there is never 
an exception to the statement that catalepsy always accompanies 
the revelation. One explanation accounts for it by the assertion 
that the conscious mind is the agent of the senses and their mem- 
ory; acting for them in the relation of the body to the earth; while 
the sub-conscious mind is directly employed in the service of the 
soul. How much of this is true need not be considered at this 
time. 

There is one personage in history of whom enough is 
known to show the nature of the results that may come from the 
cataleptic condition. We refer to Mohammed, the founder of the 
religion bearing his name. There are two classes of critics among 
Christian scholars. While both classes believe him to be wrong, 
and his millions of devotees to be misguided, one great division of 
the best .students of the man and his work assert that he himself 
was honest; and the other division assert that he was a mere pre- 
tender. There is sufficient reliable authority to prove that he was 
constantly subject to tits and spasms of epilepsy. Any history, 
however large or small, admits this fact, and it is considered to be 
as completely established as is the fact that he conquered his own 
residence, city. 

In a cave in Mount Hara near Mecca he constantly 
retired for meditation, commencing at about the age of thirty-five. 
Here he spent hours and days in religious contemplation. At the 
age of forty, while in epileptic fits, he received the first of his rev- 
elations which were ultimately printed as the Koran. His own 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 69 

honesty could hardly be doubted, when his wife was the first 

his converts. Pretenders begin elsewhere than at home. In his 
own city of Mecca he counted 40,000 fervent believers prior to I 
death; so that if he deceived men, it must have been those who 
were closest to him and knew him best. In our opinion he was 
not a pretender; but this does not admit that he was not the horn 
dupe of his own fancies. 

The genuine products of a cataleptic condition may be as 
wrong as the genuine products of honest but erroneous reasoning. 
One thing is true; the sub-conscious faculty performs wonders, and 
there is yet no evidence that it may not perform tricks. The case 
of Mohammed was undoubtedly that of a genuine trance-medium; 
and it may have been much more. In an age when fraud and pre- 
tence are prevalent, and the public has been deceived numberlr— 
times by so-called trance-mediums, it is well to calmly contemplate 
the history of one who is above the charge of charlatanism; for, as 
Prof. James, of Harvard University, says of Mrs. Piper, of x\rling- 
ton Heights, Boston, if there were. but one white sheep in a hun- 
dred it would prove that all sheep are not black. This woman has 
been studied and investigated by the English and American scien- 
tists of the highest rank; and is universally admitted to be genuine 
in her work. All possibility for fraud has been eliminated. 

Compare these two cataleptics, Mohammed and Mrs. 
Piper, and you have two similar examples of the same wonderful 
power, with an immense intellectual gulf separating them. Give 
to the modern personage the same breadth of brain and skill of ex- 
ecution that Mohammed possessed, together with his ability of 
leadership, and the age in which we live, with its millions of un- 
decided minds ready to grasp anything within reach, would witness 
the foundation of a new religion. Yet the sum of the whole story 
is merely that catalepsy is an open gateway revealing to us some 
things that the ordinary mind cannot understand because they are 
not in its line. They may be tricks. In another work we state 
the results of a complete investigation of the subject. 

The conscious mind is a magnetic use of animal intelli- 
gence. It does not know how to interpret experiences not within 
its province. When something happens through the action of the 
sub-conscious faculty, the regular mind seeks to explain it, and 
thus it flies* away into the spiritual realm in the search after rea- 
sons. What man does not understand he ascribes to superhuman 



70 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

causes, to spirits. This was so when comets and earthquakes over- 
awed the people; it is so when the sub-conscious mind manifests 
itself. The intelligence of the masses may be something better in 
this century than it was in the dark ages, but the ease with which 
enormous numbers of people accord their belief to such doctrines 
as spiritualism, faith-cure' and the like, shows that the brain is far 
from perfect. They are not able to see that certain facts, which 
are clear enough as facts, may be accounted for in more than one 
way. Their limited intelligence compels them to say that because 
"such is so and so," it therefore is proof of something else. 

The lack of magnetism is the cause of catalepsy. A per- 
son who has died in this condition, as was the fate of Irving Bishop 
and others, shows a low state of the ganglionic electrical cells 
througout the body; and this is the surest indication of a depleted 
vitality or magnetism. It is equally true that the Jack of the very 
same vitality, not the vitality of the functions that keep the lx» dy 
alive, but that of the nervous system, is always apparent when a 
person is hypnotized. Magnetism is more or less fleeting in weak 
characters. It is an essence, a quality, an endowment that comes 
and goes, and is held within one's grasp only by life's energy, in 
which mind and will play important parts. 

Let this magnetism be withdrawn by the will itself. 
as when a person hypnotizes himself; or let it be expelled by a 
stronger personality; and the condition is ripe lor the influence of 
another who understands how to take advantage of it. The opera- 
tor may not know what opposes him, but Ik- feels that something 
stands in the way, and he proceeds to remove the obstacle. Thus 
many break down the barrier of magnetism in the subject with 
no knowledge of its nature. The way being clear, the nexl step 
is to throw the person into a cataleptic sleep, out of which the sub- 
conscious faculty is aroused. When disease destroys the magnetic 
vitality, catalepsy follows: when a superior will removes it. hyp- 
notism follows. 



" "'Bitter and sweet, wben wintry evenings fall 
Across the quivering, smoking hearth, to bear 
Old memory's notes sway softly far ami near, 
If 'bile ring the cbimes across the gray ton's .- 



REALM OF UYI'XOTISM 71 



8 m I • 






f* 4H § 



Hypnotic depressions are contagious. 

This is the 413th Ralston Principle. The rise and fall of the 
tides of magnetism in any human being are as frequent as the 
movements of the ocean, although they occur without regularity 
of interval, and are dependent upon moods rather than habits. 
Thought and will are more evanescent than is supposed. They 
yield to influences of the day, to the power of circumstances, and 
especially to the will of others. Most persons are partly hyp- 
notized without knowledge of it, and would indignantly deny- the 
charge if made to them. Of course this kind of influence is de- 
pressing. Magnetism arouses one because it gives him some of 
the energy of another. Hypnotic waves have the opposite effect. 

In some degree, however slight, the contagion of this 
depression spreads and may reach a room full of persons. Gaping 
or yawning often does this. The act is, in itself, evidence of weak 
vitality, and this is depressing. One person starts to yawn; 
another follows, and the movement goes around the room several 
times. Experiments have been made in the same line, by imitat- 
ing the act of gaping with the hands, opening and shutting them, 
from contact at the wrist; and. other persons, seeing them, have 
been set to gaping. This has been done without suggestion of any 
kind. Even the reading of the description of this imitation has 
created a desire to gape. 

Depressions in mass, involving many persons, have fre- 
quently occurred; and few are free from their influence at some 
time or other in life. Many are very susceptible. They do not 
call it hypnotism, as that explanation is an unpopular one; but 
there is no doubt that the same law reaches all cases of this kind, 
varying merely in degree. Bad news affecting one person, is felt 
by others in sympathy, and even by those who are not. It often 
happens that one in a party, or one member of a household, will 
receive a so-called presentiment of misfortune, and others present 
will feel the same depression. Renorts from numberless sources 
confirm this kind of experience. There is no doubt that it is due, 
in its spreading at least, to the action of hypnotism in a slight 
decree. 



72 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

While it is not so easy to completely hypnotize a per- 
son as it is to magnetize one, it is much easier to partly hypnotize 
than to magnetize. This law is almost paramount to a principle. 
It is important enough to remember at all times. Following out 
the idea, without knowing the law, many speakers and persons in 
conversation seek to take advantage of it, and gain a temporary in- 
fluence by relating sad stories, cases of distress, and the like. We 
know a clergyman who ended every sermon with some such narra- 
tion,, and dismissed his congregation while in a depressed con 
tion. It required some hours for some of them to wake up. 

§ ,.; 

S 414 I 

i ^ 5§ 

Hypnotism appears in all degrees of force as a 
controlling power. 

This is the 414th Ralston Principle. We do to 

declare that in proportion as vitality or magnetise all 

tendency to being hypnotized is weakened. Whil mplete 
trol is not possible until the magnetism of the individual is entire] 
overcome, it is true that the stock in store by the la1 
weak as to be easily driven out. 

Few persons, however, are made t<» give up their m ig- 
netism, for the attempt to overcome them usually causes a I - 
action; whereupon the will sets to work ami new en- rgy i£ 
created. It is not always the open operator who is thus 
Lecturers, evangelists and other depr . who. instead 

ning by magnetism, seek to obtain control through the op; - 
course, are not hypnotizers, but are merely ag 
that lead to a condition which in itself is hypnotism. 
gapes cannot lay claim to power: it is the gape that - ^r. The 
picture of a person yawning was hung up in a school-room as an 
experiment; as a result every student there began to yawn, all uj - 
consciously. These things show that there is such a conditi 
self-hypnotism. 

We are nearly all of us subject to it ; and this could 
be true if it did not appear in degrees. The scale of control i- 
long one, extending from the slightest influence to thi ':i- 

plete sleep. The few persons who never came under t : s .re 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 73 

those who are highly magnetic, and they are altogether unim- 
pressionable. They seem cold in their nature, and lacking in sym- 
pathy for the misfortunes of others; while possessing an attractive 
personal power. They are recognized as strong in all their facul- 
ties and as leaders of mankind. All others,, however, come under 
some degree of hypnotic influence sooner or later; and few are 
aware that they are thus partly controlled. 

^ 415 8 

i 
Clairvoyance is induced by hypnotism. 

This is the 415th Ealston Principle. The word clairvoyance 
means clear seeing, and is supposed to have its origin in the idea 
that all material objects are transparent. If the fact exists at all, 
it is true that the perception annihilates space and time, and pene- 
trates solid walls as easily as the physical eye leaps through the 
matter of the atmosphere. 

No case of genuine clairvoyance ever existed that was 
not induced by hypnotism of one kind or another; that is, by the 
influence of an operator, or by the action of self -hypnotizing. The 
latter is well proved. Most trance-mediums, or clairvoyants, are 
so in name only; in reality they are either out and out frauds or 
are weak in the powers they profess. While many of them may 
have been the subjects of mesmerists and have thus ascertained 
their ability to act as clairvoyants, it is claimed that the majority 
have never been operated upon but have discovered that they were 
endowed with the faculty of putting themselves into the sleep. We 
shall show how this is done, a. few pages later. 

From information at hand it is probable that thousands 
of men and women are living in this country who have been hyp- 
notized, and that many more are added to the numbers yearly. Of 
these, nearly all might become trance-mediums if they were fol- 
lowed up and trained in that line of development. There are such 
mediums who lack all power except when hypnotists are in attend- 
ance to put them to sleep; some pretend to carry on the business 
alone, and, no matter what might be the genuineness of their work 
when under control, they are impotent as self-mesmerizers. On 
the other hand it is rare that a trance-medium is also a self-mesmer- 



U 



74 UXITERSAL MAGNETISM 

izer; a few such exist, yet they are valueless most of the time. One 
who is genuine suffers much loss of vitality by continually closing 
out the conscious faculties; and the cataleptic sleep is dangerous 
if persisted in too frequently. 

We therefore conclude that the genuine clairvoyants are 
not always able or willing to exert themselves except upon import- 
ant occasions; that those who are trustworthy at times are not gen- 
erally so, but depend upon a few remarkable strokes of success for 
the maintenance of reputation and patronage; and that the gen- 
eral crowd of advertisers of this kind are pure shams, some admit- 
tedly possessing a faint degree of telepathic energy, while oth< - 
have none. We have met those who are genuine, and find t. 
they are discredited because they advertise to foretell evea 
Knowing that they are endowed with clairvoyant powers. 1 I 
hardly coming in contact with the details of their own work, t] 
assume the impossible, and are charged with dishonesty whi! 
actually guilty. 

Clairvoyance is the operation of tin- sul>-< 
mind; a faculty that is alert night and day in every human b 
but of which we have little or no knowledg by intnitio . 

for the reason that by some kind of doom which - ount- 

able, the connection between this inner mind and thi _ larmi 
has been severed. The sub-conscions faculty lives, acts and i 
tends to its duties with untiring zeal. It- chief p is the 

perception that travels any distance in a second, an- without 

the aid of the senses. This is universally admitted t.» be the fa 
If we could only know what is known by the inner brain, v ild 

be omniscient. Fate or nature has ordained that wo cannoi - 
such knowledge while the regular mind is conscious; so this m 
be put to sleep, the body must become chad through the sos 
sion of its action in catalepsy, and then the inner mind parti] 
veals itself to others but not to the individual. 

Such is the fall of man.- Let any poison succeed in 
uniting these two minds, so that the conscious faculty may tak 
vantage of the knowledge that comes within the gras the sub- 

conscious, and all things would lie open, revealed in every detail. 
A few persons have been rarely endowed in this respect, and but 
partly so; yet they have boon the world's geniuses I: mi - 
that man has fallen from the loftiest o( pedestals, or has 
attain his noblest oi estates. The proposition is as plain and 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 75 

accurate as the most exact of mathematical statements. It cannot 
be refuted. The goal is too great to contemplate. Whether any of 
this race will ever reach it or not, is beyond knowledge. It would 
require a revolution of all faculties, and of all methods of living, 
to enable mankind to step into a realm so close at hand and so far 
away. 

Under present conditions the penalty of clairvoyance 
is a severe one. It comes only from catalepsy; and this is merely a 
dying of the normal life of the body; or such a suspension as re- 
sembles death, and for the time being is its equal. "When the life 
is removed, for it seems to be an obstacle, then the sub-conscious 
faculty may become alert. It probably does, although there is no 
way of finding out unless others are present. Sleep is not cata- 
lepsy, and the dreams that come may have no relation to the sub- 
conscious life. The latter is presumably awake, but we cannot con- 
nect with it. Death, as near as we can produce it, removes the 
barrier, which is life; then the inner faculty may be partly con- 
nected with. This would argue that death is the opening of the life 
within; but the fact known may have no relation whatever to the 
assumption. Things are not proved in that way. A great gulf of 
other possibilities separates the fact from the assumption. 

Some day we may come nearer to the proof. Investi- 
gation is rapidly tending that way. It is your duty to go no further 
than facts, and to avoid conclusions that only seemed warranted. 
For years it was considered proof positive of a spirit communica- 
tion when a medium talked with the memories of those who lived 
or died; the fact being that the various personages who speak 
through the medium are characters that live in her inner brain, 
just as all kinds of characters dwell in the regular mind; and that 
inner brain, having clairvoyant powers, can see far beyond all ordi- 
nary expectation. It can perceive thoughts, call out of the great 
fund of lost memories many exact things, reproduce persons and 
talks that have existed and now are nearly forgotten, and startle 
us with speeches, descriptions and details that no ordinary faculties 
could acquire; yet because we, with our ordinary faculties, fail to 
comprehend them, we certainly have no right to set up the claim 
that these are spirits from the spirit world talking through the 
muddy vesture of this medium. 

Such a claim is not only without foundation, but it is 
ridiculous. The power is that of clear-seeing, and it is a remark- 



76 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

able one; we freely admit that; but its clear-seeing merely results 
in its partial interpretation of what it sees, and it plays many fan- 
tastic roles in these translations. "When a dead woman speaks, as it 
seems, she does not speak at all; it is the sub-conscious faculty talk- 
ing. The dead are far away and know nothing of it. The idea that 
Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, Shakespeare and earth's most promi- 
nent personages must be turned over in their graves at the request 
of some greasy woman, and made to indulge in jargon at her sweet 
will, is too absurd to be discussed; and the fact that great masses 
of hollow-eyed people believe in it is proof of the hypnotized condi- 
tion of the modern mind. 

The sub-conscious brain talks for any and everybody, 
in and out of all subjects. Being clear-seeing, it can go where our 
reasoning cannot. Still it is the talker. Its men and women, 
dead and alive, with their descriptions, loves, lang _■ -. styles, 
methods, are caught out of the minds of others, present or absent; 
and its assertions are generally echoes of the wishes or expectations 
of those at hand. When a man says, "I died eight years ago las 
May, on Monday, at 2.16 p. M.," it is nothing but the brain of the 
medium talking. But some one says, "How can the medium tell 
what she never knew?" In the first place, she is not telling it: her 
sub-conscious mind is telling it; and, being clear- _. can 
know that, and a million other things, which the medium could D 
learn in ten thousand years of normal existem 

Then comes the further claim that the clear-seeing 
faculty ought to be believed, or taken at its word. Thus, when the 
supposed spirit says, "I am dwelling in heaven, and your sister and 
brother, who died since I did, are here with me" vre are called 
upon to believe that the spirit must be, in fact, speaking, becans 
otherwise it would be untruthful. Even this statement, in effect, 
is often made by the inner faculty of a medium, "I am the spirit of 
Henry Brown; I am living in the spirit-world." In such i - -. the 
genuineness of the medium is open to question. Bur. assumi: 
that she be honest, such statements are wrung from her I j _ at 
efforts, if at all; and they can be easily ascribed to the echoes or 
expectations of persons at hand, no matter how clear-cut and 
startling the assertions mav seem. 

It is always the sub-conscicus mind that talks ; never 
anyone or anything beyond it. The connection with normal minds 
at best is very imperfect, like a badly constructed telephone-line. 



REALM OF HYPXOTISM 77 

The clear-seeing faculty has unlimited range among all minds, pres- 
ent and absent, and among all places. It must contend with this 
crowd of visions, this debris of memories, this hoping, wondering 
and expecting that linger in other minds; and it would be strange if 
it did not furnish all kinds of information. Still, it is the sub-con- 
scious brain that speaks. There is nothing beyond it, except its 
perceptive abilities. In the case of Mrs. Piper, herself ac- 
knowledged by all to be a perfectly genuine clairvoyant, the scien- 
tists, who have employed her for years, admit that, while she is 
honest, the characters who speak in her are rarely truthful when 
talking of themselves, and generally truthful when detailing 
events and descriptions. So it is largely a muddle, with some 
startling accuracies at times that overwhelm the mind. 

The future cannot be told by clairvoyants. Those who 
claim to do it, are either deliberate frauds or else are the dupes of 
their own powers. "VVe have already stated that the medium, when 
honest, is not conscious of what is done or said when in the trance; 
.therefore she cannot know, as a matter of fact, whether or not the 
future is foretold. Believing in her powers, she is led to advertise 
more than she can execute. As clairvoyance is clear-seeing, and as 
the future has not yet been unrolled, it would follow, naturally, 
that it could not be seen. Coinciding with this view, is the uni- 
versal experience of investigation. The past has been brought up, 
and the present penetrated, often to the wonderment of others; but 
there is no case of prediction or foretelling that has any color of 
genuine clairvoyancy about it. Here and there, a few things have 
been stated that can readily be accounted for as guess work; and 
some instances of sight into the future have been traced to tele- 
pathy, by which hopes or plans are read in the minds of others prior 
to fulfilment. 



" Gather a shell from the strown beach 
And listen at its lips : they sigh 

The same desire and mystery, 
The echo of the whole sea's speech. 

And all mankind is thus at heart 
Not anything hut what thou art : 

And Earth, Sea, Man, are all in each.' 



78 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

Spiritualism is founded upon defective clairvoyance. 

This is the 416th Ealston Principle. We might well say that 
all clairvoyance is imperfect. There is a limited amount of accu- 
rate knowledge concerning it; and what there is cannot be taken 
a basis for any system of religion, or belief relating to the soul. All 
persons at times have had some evidence of the presence of the sub- 
conscious faculty; though most have been slight and unimportant. 
The passing of a face, the touch of a finger, 1 1 1 * - noise of some faint 
sound, some call, or music, the reading of a though a hen we 

speak an idea that another had intended to utter at the moment; 
these are common glimpses of this faculty. 

In response to a large number of requ< >r reports, 

we received the general statemenl from nearly all whom \ d 

to state if they had ever seen ghosts, or ved in them, to the 

effect that none had been seem and were nol believed in. Bui 
few persons asserted most positively that they had Been 
one clergyman declared that nothing could shake his belief in 
spirits, as he had seen one and believed whi Tl - - 

logical on its face. If to believe what is take: 

guide, the drea HUM-, the delirious patient and t' 
are able to prove all sorts of spirit wor] 

Investigators have never considered it worth while 
to account for the objects seen in Buch \ 

the creation of the Eever in the patient, t! juring up of the 

disturbed brain of the dreamer, the contorti D the 

drunkard; but, as something cannot he created out of nothing, t': - 
does not account i'ov them. A keen and Benaiti iml may build 

creations, so it is said: and this is m that the • - 

disordered brain so originate. It' a clear mind may build i 
it does not follow that they are built out of nothing. In delirium 
there is inflammation of the hrain, the nei a - involvt 

they are never free from the association of bacteria, and mi. - in 
general; and we are satisfied that the smallest particles, 
atom itself, may be perceived, in rare instances, una 1 
of excitement, not of the mind, but o\ % the fin 3 I he brain 

where impressions are .made in the sense i sight. As mici 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 79 



compete successfully with shapes of demonology and the reptile 
world, this would account for most anything seen by a delirious 
brain. 

It does not account for the evidences of telepathy and 
clairvoyance. These are akin, with the exception that the former is 
merely the power of interpreting, in an exceedingly slight degree, 
the facts known to the sub-conscious mind. One who can look into 
the thoughts of another brain, or who can see events not present 
to the eye, is a telepathist. All persons are such at times; some to 
a much greater extent than they imagine. All persons possess an 
inner mind; it knows all, probably; few persons ever catch the 
knowledge of that inner mind, because the connecting links of con- 
sciousness have been taken away; still the inner mind is always at 
work; it leaks occasionally, and the regular brain grasps the 
knowledge, but in such little bits that no real service is rendered, 
except in rare instances. This is telepathy. 

Clairvoyance differs from telepathy in that the latter 
occurs under all conditions, asleep, awake, sane, insane, or in or 
out of the mesmeric state; while clairvoyance is possible only when 
the normal life is made as dead, and the sub-conscious life is called 
forth for interpretation. As most persons are able, to put them- IS 
selves into some degree of catalepsy, or become depressed in some 
degree of hypnotism, which is the same thing differently stated, it 
is true that they may experience some of the conditions of clairvoy- 
ance; and, under this consideration, it may be claimed that tele- 
pathy is its mildest degree; or that one may merge into the other. 

In either case the phenomena of ghosts may be ac- 
counted for on the theory of self-hypnotism, or that imposed by 
circumstances. Fear and expectancy are common causes of this 
condition, either mildly or strongly. A person had been told that 
a woman in white appeared nightly behind a certain tree on a cer- 
tain estate, that she never had been seen elsewhere. He became 
so impressed with the thought that he looked for the apparition, 
but in vain. One evening, laboring under a special spell of de- 
pression, he thought he saw the woman, and his mind soon con- 
firmed the fact, as he believed. The experience was repeated night 
after night for a week, when his mind cleared and the woman dis- 
appeared. It originated in a hoax, yet the ghost was a fact to him. 

A girl ran screaming from her house to that of a neighbor, 
telling the story of a ghost that walked across the road near the 



80 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

house. A month later she repeated the same transaction, telling 
the same story. This occurred for three months; the apparition 
passing from one side of the road to the other, east of the house, 
and always choosing the same place for its rendezvous. A brave 
young man, who boasted that he was anxious for just such an op- 
portunity of disproving the existence of ghosts, undertook to hold 
watch in the neighborhood. In the meantime the family had 
moved away, the girl was in a distracted, nervous condition, and the 
house was deserted. 

The young man secured a description of the apparition 
through a third person, and set about his task. He wasted valuable 
time for some months; but, at length, was rewarded by seeing the 
ghost. It appeared on the west side of the house, and was clad as 
the description stated. Before seeing it, he had become depressed 
by an affair that drove him to the verge of suicide. He was 
alarmed at the sight, and ran from it, almost in hysterii a The 
strange part of the story is that the intermediate party pur 
located the ghost in the wrong place, and clothed it in garments thai 
differed considerably from those seen by the girl; thus proving that 
expectancy had provided the sight. It v 

notism in a degree, occurring in do; >n: while th I he 

clairvoyant perception of the description taken oni of the mind 
of the intermediate person. 

What one sees maybe doubted, but v told that 

the evidence of two or more proves a thing beyon n. This 

supposes all persons to be honest. The individual who » - one 
may be charged with telepathic or nervous disorder, so that he 
not able to credit his own senses; while two or more may no: 
to this charge. A case is in point. A hand v g - protrudu 
from the hole in the ceiling of a school-house. 1: wi - i * ry th 
white hand, as of death. A female school-teacher saw it: fail 
revived; went about her duties; saw it again, and had I 
home. She was nearly dead with fear. Although slu- d< 
she could not be induced to go into the building again, she 
minutely described the occurrence, and anxiously soughl s tion. 

Crowds were attracted to the place through e e - 
tional and grossly false statements published in the papers: but the 
hand did not appear. The teacher was finally induced to return 
in company with some friends. She saw nothing. One afternoon, 
late in autumn, she was at the building with seven young women 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 81 

who had made request to go with her. One of these was a sad-faced 
girl who seemed to labor under great fear. She saw the hand first; 
next the teacher saw it; and, finally, the others. An investigation 
of the testimony of the eight persons showed that all were greatly 
depressed by one thing or another, chiefly by the situation, and the 
shrinking of the teacher, and the appearance of her sad-faced 
friend. 

The expectation of something superhuman about to 
occur, and the fear of seeing it, placed all the visitors under the law 
previously stated, that hypnotic depression is contagious. A famil- 
iar illustration was that of gaping, as given in connection with 
the principle. The teacher says she looked once or twice at the 
hole where the hand had formerly appeared, but refrained from 
gazing steadily at it, as she seemed conscious of a growing condition 
that would naturally invite the vision. The sickly woman looked 
for it and afterward said that she was sure she would see it. "Some- 
thing told me I was going to see that hand," she exclaimed at the 
time. The fact that the others witnessed the same vision may be 
explained either by the law of telepathy, or the principle that hyp- 
notic depression is contagious. 

If either of these laws is in operation, the only concur- 
ring condition needed is that the persons present should be weak in 
magnetism, so that they could not, or would not, resist the hyp- 
notic influences. Then it would be strange if all did not see the 
same apparition. The testimony of the two or more, instead of 
proving that the ghost was a reality, would confirm that rule that 
what one hypnotic subject witnesses, all witness. Were it not for 
the contagious element involved in these matters, no magnetic per- 
son would be able to thrill hundreds with his power, or depress a 
whole audience at will. It is true that there are experiences which 
come to one alone, and which cannot be transmitted to others, even 
if present; but it will be found that such others are free from de- 
pression and out of sympathy with the occurrence. 

Spiritualism has no standing. A quarter of a century 
hence the world will laugh at the idea of spirits talking back, and 
especially in the supremely silly way in which they are made to do 
under the regime of their tormentors. The laws of depression and 
its contagion have undoubtedly helped to establish experiences 
where partly hypnotized persons, or the usual attendants at seances, 
are made to see, hear, feel, taste and smell according as the sub- 



82 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

conscious faculty wills; but all the claims taken as made cannot for 
a moment warrant the assumption that they prove any connection 
between the spirit world and our own. To adhere to such belief 
is evidence of a partly hypnotized mind in the belief er. 



I 4*7 I 



The loss of all personal magnetism must precede 
complete clairvoyance. 

This is the 417th Ralston Principle. Vitality, the spark 
life and personal magnetism are all one and the sam< . pt in the 

uses to which they are put. All these must be suspended in the 
person who wishes to become a clairvoyant: and the supervision 
may be directed by the person himself, by fi 

morbid character, or by a mesmerist. Someti - in 

catalepsy as a disease, but this does not _ 
clition desired. 

One of the rules usually given to a candidate for this 
kind of work, is to subdue the will and to try I ib- 

jection to the operator. Efforts of the Bori i 
rule. A person may be very anxious to be* a clairvoyant, but 

personal magnetism is in the way. Jt der 

of the will; for the more power the will has the more magnetic 
generated. Teachers say: "Now exeri your will all you car. 
give yourself up." This is a contradiction, [t is liki saying:"] 
all you can and try hard to get hungry by 
of the will general cs magnetism. 

The art of losing one's vitality is not easily aoquii 
It becomes the basis of hypnotism, and the latter must aim 
cede clairvoyance. So thes< g ;>< musl be unders 11 

take the first is the primary consideration. After that tin 
is much easier. While we do not recommend such practice, it ifi 
our duty to pivsem the full course of procedure; for, if we do i 
do so, some one will, and the result will be the same. 
remains, however, that the losing of one's magnetism is inji; 
to the health, while the cataleptic rendition of body and mi- 
harmful to both. Some operators give back all the ma. 
they take away, and occasionally more, so thai the loss a 
sated in such instances. 



REALM OF HTPyOTISM 83 



3£ 4.18 C* 

I P 



The union of magnetism and telepathy produces 
extraordinary genius. 

This is the 418th Ealston Principle. There are always excep- 
tions somewhere. A telepathic condition is one in which the con- 
scious mind has connection with the sub-conscious. The latter is 
clear-seeing, has access to all other minds, and to all events every- 
where. It knows everything. If the conscious mind were to con- 
nect with it. there would be no need of studying and memorizing 
in order to acquire knowledge. 

Whether these two minds have ever been united we 
cannot say. It is possible that the ideal man, the Adam who fell 
because he tasted of the tree of knowledge, was deprived of this 
wonderful power because so much knowledge meant infinitude. 
This is mere speculation. It may be true that the union of the 
two faculties awaits man in another world or a future life. If it 
ever occurred, or ever should occur, the results must be beyond all 
measurement. One thing is amazing; the sub-conscious mind is a 
fact, and a concealed one. It can be proved, but the steps to be 
taken are arduous and unsatisfactory. From this we conclude 
that the concealment is intended: or it is possible that the glimpses 
of light are guiding lines to direct man to discover more. 

To possess a faculty so powerful and to be unable to 
use it, is somewhat puzzling to the aggressive spirit of our species. 
To be compelled to assume the attributes of death, in order to 
awaken the inner, all-knowing mind, and then to remain ignorant 
of its disclosures, is even vexing. Once in a while an extraordinary 
genius appears on earth, and an analysis of his nature shows that 
he is endowed with magnetism in the highest degree, and breaks 
the rule of depression by possessing a consciousness of the knowl- 
edge held by his inner mind. Let this become a perfected union 
and the man is a srod. 

"Taring the ocean $ shore. 
Edged by the foaming roar, 
Words never used before 
Sound sweet to somebody." 



84 , UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 






Hypnotic depressions may become epidemic. 

This is the 419th Balston Principle. So weak is the human 
mind on matters not personal or selfish, that error spreads like ink 
upon the wave. One idea hypnotizes the country;, and a wrong 
notion becomes idealized and goes into history as a virtue. When 
the public are thus swayed, the contagion is irresistible. It divides 
itself only as the interests involved may warrant. Among the 
political parties, the epidemic is confined to one or the other of 
them, thus showing the weakness of the mind; for an apparent fact 
cannot be a fact at will, and a fiction at will, as the beliefs of par- 
tisans insist they are. 

When the whole population of the civilized world in 
the last decade of the tenth century, then confin. <1 to Europe, saw 
and felt the approach of the year 1000, a fear of great magnitude 
seized them. Almost without exception, men, women and chil- 
dren were depressed and hypnotized into the belief that the wor 
was coming to an end. Wars erased; peace and a spirit of 

love swept over the savage breasts of the tine -. ening the way 
to the Crusades, religious fervor and finally tie !; ce. Out 

of fear comes repentance. No better illusl ration of an epidemic of 
hypnotic depression has vwv been furnished by history. 

Beliefs are likewise spread through mas >ple, 

depending on their condition of mind i ,f ac- 

ceptance. No matter how absurd an idea may be there is alwa 
something to believe in it. The claims of the origin of Mora* 
ism are accepted as honest fans to-day by thousands; and it you 
assert this to one of them you will get the reply: "Of course we 1 
lieve the story to be true; and if yen wish to understand the 
sincerity of our belief come to Utah." This is the type of all oth 
cases. You may begin with a fiction, a hoax plaj al 

joke, set it up in pretended seriousness for the attention of othe 
and, years after, you will find a people swearing allegian< 
and their children reverencing it as sacred. 

The sects of faith-curists, known asChristiai - : 
and several other kinds, have a following that is nor large but i 
earnest, including men and women who are openly above tl si spi- 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 85 

cion of being weak-minded; but the enormous proportion of them 
that go insane proves the rule that mental depressions or defects at- 
tend most cases of hypnotism where superstition is the stimulating 
cause. Every upstart finds some followers. Religious fanatics 
are not without devotees. Schemes to make money are sure to 
allure investors of a class that ought to have sense enough to know 
that nothing but total loss can come out of them. 

Politicians are shrewd enough to know this defect in 
the popular mind, and they proceed to serve bait on the hook. 
Falsehoods fly like wildfire along party ranks. The people believe 
and are fooled; believe again and are fooled; and go on taking bait 
blindly. A million voters accept the skilful invention and stake 
their whole course of suffrage on its being true; always flocking like 
sheep to its standard; while as many more yield their faith to some- 
thing exactly opposite. This following in herds cannot be ac- 
counted for, except upon the theory that masses of people are 
afflicted with hypnotic contagion. The manipulators of political 
beliefs during campaigns know wherein their party followers are 
depressed mentally, and they study to supply the needed excitant. 

When a mesmerist secures control of his subject, he 
suits his suggestions to the nature of the person and the probability 
of their being adopted. This principle is seen everywhere in 
political and newspaper sensations. What is most likely to fit into 
the hollows of human nature is most paraded, and it is a profession 
in itself to concoct such matters. In the dearth of news in 1893, 
the papers started the rumor of hard times, exaggerated every 
common occurrence and gave it color of disaster; so that the panic 
was a natural consequence. The depression was epidemic. 

History furnishes many examples of men who have 
done their country great service through years of sacrifice and toil, 
yet who- are suddenly overwhelmed by unpopularity, and almost in 
a day. Ingratitude is not explained on any other ground than that 
the people, being deficient mentally, have no power to resist the in- 
fluence of meanness that runs rampant through the land. Hyp- 
notic epidemics are always on the dark side. The public will 
eagerly devour ill reports, and scoff at good ones. A newspaper 
libel will take a page of type in leading columns; its denial will 
occupy a few lines in an obscure corner; or a page to a lie and an 
inch to the truth. This the people believe in and prefer. 



86 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

^ * § 

5K 420 & 

Hypnotism is induced by one person whose thought- 
waves coincide with the thought-waves of another. 

This is the 420th Ralston Principle. Waves of water, waves of 
sound, waves of light, waves of thought exist and flow in rhythmic 
action, each in its domain. In a water-wave the body of water 
itself need not move onward for a wave to pass over its surface. 
Sound will travel through still air. Light shines in absolute quie- 
tude. Thought is impulse of the ether that pervades all matter. 
It moves in waves of action as peacefully or as turbulently as the 
force behind it shall determine. 

A thinking mind is necessarily a magnetic one. You 
cannot separate one force from the other. When the magnetism is 
weak, the mind is also depressed. It does not follow that wisdom, 
judgment or depth of intellect are sure to come from the acquisi- 
tion of magnetism. You can give the mind health without making 
it fit for a philosophy, as you can give the body health without 
producing the skilled artisan. The foundation makes the other 
qualities possible, but does not provide them. AVhere there is depth 
and breadth of thought, there is some degree of magnetism, and 
the two are associates. 

It was formerly claimed that no minds except tfa - 
that were weak could be mesmerized. It is generally true, but 
always so. If a strong mind can be deprived of its magnet ism, the 
mesmerist may succeed in getting control over it. Persona ' 
have become exhausted through over-use of the brain, or who are 
depressed, or otherwise out of normal balance, may be caught at 
such times, but would soon react, if their ordinary faculties v 
strong. In this way the ablest of men and women have been 
partly controlled, and these periods are called lapses. They 
rare, and should hardly be taken into consideration in the purs 
of this study. 

Will and thought and magnetism run together, as the 
same or parts of the same things. Xo mesmerist can make any pro- 
gress against either the one or the other. If the subject shows any 
force of will, the first thing to do is to ascertain if this can be 
broken; and a moment or two will generally suffice to tell if there 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 87 

is a likelihood of weakening. So one who is engaged in strong 
thought is not apt to come under the influence; yet the waves of 
thought may be driven out with some skilled efforts. Likewise, 
magnetism will repel the operator. Whether these three good 
qualities are considered as separate forces, or as one and the same, 
varying in uses, they, or any one of them, will stand in the way of 
the success of a mesmerist. 

Thought-waves are alike when they take the same view 
of the same subject. If one person is thinking of one thing, and 
another person of another, they do not coincide; and, until there is 
a supreme command of attention given to one or the other, their 
is no hope of hypnotizing either. If one person thinks of the same 
subject, but has a different view of it from another, the same law 
holds true. The very first step in securing hypnotic control of an 
individual is in compelling him to think of the same thing that is 
in your mind, and in the same way. 

Herein is one of the secrets of success in the art of mes- 
merizing. We assume that vou wish to take 

LESSONS IN THIS ART. 

If so, you must begin at the beginning. The steps are simple; the 
work is difficult. The first presupposes that you have acquired per- 
sonal magnetism. The second is under the present principle, that 
thought-waves must coincide. This is not so hard to understand, 
nor so hard to execute, as one might think at first. The skill re- 
quired is not deep, nor of a broad nature. Animal cunning often 
counts for more in results than the finer plans of a far-reaching 
mind. So there are mesmerists, who are considered of shallow cali- 
bre, who accomplish more than those who are really strong men- 
tally. We should understand what is the scope of animal cunning; 
not because it is desirable to acquire it; but because you may be 
thwarted by it most unexpectedly. 

Low animal cunning is so shrewd that, at times, it 
passes for depths of brain; yet it is peculiarly shallow, and this 
helps it to deceive. A man, who has judged his fellow-beings suc- 
cessfully, said of a negro, "If that man is not honest, I am incapable 
of reading him. To adopt the tactics necessary to deceive would 
require a mind of rare ability." Yet, on finding that he was im- 



88 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

posed upon by the negro, he went to studying the subject from a 
different standpoint, and came upon the habits of rats, foxes, bears, 
and many animals that were even deeper in some respects than the 
average lawyer. Their feigning of innocence, and their pretences 
that were intended as diversions, were surprising to him. 

The mesmerist is usually a person who is capable, by 
instinct of deception and pretension, though skilful in their repre- 
sentation. He must have some magnetism, for without it he can- 
not have strength of thought, determination of will, and the ability 
to capture the belief of his subject. Then he must be adroit enough 
to make his thought-waves coincide with those of his subject. 
Here his skill or cunning begins. One who has no faith in the 
ability of the operator could never be hypnotized until the obstacle 
was removed. In many instances this is not difficult. To see or 
know that the power exists, is part of the work of beginning; and 
subjects who could not be impressed at first are sometimes captured 
when they have witnessed the subjection of another. Thus a young 
man with his lady friend attended a private meeting, where repeated 
efforts were made to impress him without avail; yet, when the lady 
became drowsy, he felt his firmness giving way, and, finally, became 
controlled. Public exhibitors carry some susceptible subjects with 
them, as a stock in trade, to use in terrorizing new comers. 

If the voice and eye are magnetic the work of convic- 
tion is easier and briefer. The voice stands for the real man be- 
hind it. If there is sickness, weakness, vacillation, the tones show 
them unmistakably to the sensitive condition of the subject. If 
there is firmness, faith and determination, these are driven home I 
conviction by the sound of the voice. So a magnetic speaker m 
soon have his subject partly under control, as to belief and inclina- 
tion, by speaking of the matter in advance of any effort to manir - 
late. In the attempt to produce a coincidence of thought-wav 
the speaker should select the topic that is most likely to be in the 
mind of both at the time. Very naturally this is the power of m - 
merism. 

This topic should always be preferred. It would be 
absurd to seek control over another who knew that there was to be 
an effort made to hypnotize, and yet who would not give it a 
thought, even under partial compulsion. Mere denial or refusal is 
uncommon; and it may be beaten down by a determined person. 
When there is a desire to secure control without allowing 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 89 

subject to suspect, then the selection of the topic should be such 
as may suit the whim or taste of the latter. He ma) r be drawn out 
by testing questions, or by permitting him to talk freely. But a 
mere casual idea is not enough; the topic must be impressive, and 
the remarks exceedingly serious. 

The best topic is that of mesmerism itself. Much can 
be said upon it. No startling statement should be made until the 
person being addressed is prepared to accept it. Some common- 
place truth, something that he knows to be a fact, should be set 
forth, as that many persons doubt the power of this art to control 
them. This is a well-known fact. Ignorant persons think there 
is no such thing as hypnotism. Then pass on to incidents where 
the art has been used, and the results have been, at first, beyond 
the belief of the public. Let this be followed by a statement of the 
way in which many are made subjects against their will, and have 
tried to resist it, but without success. 

One of the most skilful of hypnotists made a practice of 
reciting incidents seriously; always selecting such as would be most 
likely to alarm his hearers. lie pictured the power as irresistible; 
told of those who sought to evade it, and ended by giving a vivid 
description of several who had recently fought the power, only to 
find that the harder they fought the more easily they succumbed. 
Another person used to make a solemn harangue, not overdrawn in 
appearance, in which he introduced a few examples of the practice. 
Some one would try to leave the hall; would start from the chair; 
would make a strong effort to resist; yet finally would give in, and 
come upon the platform. 

Two physicians examined a young woman who was 
thus used; believing that she was a conspirator with the others in 
making a public pretence, so as to convince the people present; but 
they found that she was really in a cataleptic sleep, and that her ap- 
parent struggling to throw off the influence was due to suggestions 
made to her silently. She, as a hypnotic, passed through the stages 
of resistance and yielding without knowing it. Very few persons 
can feign this sleep, even far enough to deceive the inexperienced 
observers; while those who try are sooner or later caught. An illus- 
tration of this is seen in the case of three young men who were good 
natural actors, who gave entertainments with a fake mesmerist; 
they sitting far apart in the audiences, and coming upon the plat- 
form on call. They did deceive the remote public, yet there were 



90 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

many cries of disbelief. Later on they agreed to help out a fairly 
good hypnotist by feiging sleep; but in less than three months he 
had made them all genuine cataleptic s. 

In an opening address, whether in a public place or in a 
private room, whether as a lecturer or as an explanatory conversa- 
tion, the facts stated in these paragraphs may serve to fill in the 
remarks and interest the subject. If he is becoming impressed, his 
lower jaw will gradually yield its fixed tension; the teeth will part 
while yet the lips are closed; then the latter will open gradually, 
and the individual is giving his thought and his belief to the 
speaker. By these little indications the manipulator knows what 
effect his words are producing, and what steps next to take. A 
keen watchfulness must be maintained all through the opening 
statement. A lady hypnotist always began by saying: "Xow, if 
you do not feel any interest in this matter we will not proceed 
further. If you do not believe in the art of hypnotism, you may 
come to believe in it as you receive information; but you must be 
interested to hear and know, or we will waste the time talking 
about it." By the law of opposition she aroused an interest. 

The so-called hypnotic voice does not exist. Hypnot- 
ism is a negative condition. Magnetism is a positive or affirma- 
tive force. Light and darkness are opposites; the former is a 
positive fact, the latter the absence of such fact. Magnetism in the 
voice is a power intended either to arouse or depress those who 
are brought under its influence; if aroused, they are magnetized; 
if depressed, they are hypnotized. A voice, therefore, may 
frighten, startle, discourage, or otherwise intrude itself upon the 
peace of the listener. Actors lore to create such a condition. 
Tragedy and pathos exist on the stage solely because those who 
enact them, enjoy the rich pleasure of seeing audiences wince and 
shiver beneath the sombre and doomv influences. Henry Irving 
made his reputation in "The Bells'* and the "Dream of Eugene 
Aram," one a play, the other a recitation. His weird rendition 
can hardly be forgotten. To make the play more depressing he 
acted the part of a man hypnotized and in the sleep compelled to 
confess his crime. 

The magnetic voice is a positive agency of great force, 
intense and powerful in proportion to its quietude, that is em- 
ployed to uplift and to depress alike. Lender its influence it is not 
required that the speaker should depress himself and lose his mag- 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 91 

netism in order to depress others. If lie is low-spirited the feelings 
will run their course through others by contagion; but it may not 
go far. Partial hypnotism is the result. If he is magnetic lie may 
drive home a powerful force calculated to deplete the magnetism 
of others and lodge in them the depressing influence he concocts. 
This requires skill, but it is often done. As we have pre- 
viously noted, many clergymen have resorted to this practice for 
years, leaving their congregations sadly depressed at the close; and 
an excellent hypnotist once said that if he could have his pick of 
the audiences at the end of these discourses, he could put hundreds 
to sleep and fully control them by going on where the preachers 
left off. This is a true proposition. It means that a partial hyp- 
notic condition is induced by the depression instigated by the 
speakers from the pulpit, probably solemn and deeply serious ; 
which the professional manipulator might take advantage of. 



1 


42J | 


MS 



The round eye is an agent of depression. 

This is the 421st Ralston Principle. Were it not for the fact 
that it plays so important a part in the success of the hypnotist, 
the law involved in the above statement might not rise to the posi- 
tion of a principle. The force of a strongly magnetic mind shows 
itself in the eye. Will power is exhibited in the carriage of the 
lids above and below the eyeball. Expression of the passions may 
show light in the pupil, but the facial muscles have so varied a 
play around the eye that all physiognomists declare that there is 
no meaning to> be read in the ball; it is all in the lids.. 

Deep study and calmness tend to contract these cover- 
ings of the eye; while, on the other hand, excitement opens them 
wide. A person may be magnetically excited and perfectly still in 
the body; the eyes will seem to get larger and larger all the while. 
Full interest in one's own work, in one's own mental effort or will- 
exercise 1 , always lifts the upper lid; while dullness causes it to 
droop. Let the interest increase and the lid rises, showing some 
of the white of the ball above the iris. This is a strong magnetic 
condition, and is one of the tests of it. When the person is wildly 
excited the line of white directly above is fully a half inch wide. 



JT 



92 • UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

This is excessive; and shows that the power is losing itself in the 
heat of excitement. 

On the other hand a truly magnetic person rarely 
shows more than an eighth or a quarter of inch of top-white. To 
this there is always a means of adding increased expression by in- 
tensifying the eye as the heat of magnetism becomes greater. All 
magnetism is tense; and the body cannot help becoming tense. 
Wild, erratic tension displays itself in the extraordinary uplifting 
of the lid as in hilarity of laughter or the horror of fright. In 
magnetism the excess is seen in a tensing of the whole face, involv- 
ing the lower lid of the eye. This becomes drawn down until a 
line of white shows around the whole ball, and the unusual appear- 
ance of the lids encasing its contents as in a circle is presented. 
This when mechanically done is depressing. 

The hypnotist should not feel or exhibit fear. "When 
he startles others, he should himself remain calm. To them the 
round eye is something horrible, and it is a part of low animal cun- 
ning to create a feeling of horror in the subject so that the de- 
pression may be as deep as possible. You can, with any tensing 
exercise in these works on magnetism, soon acquire the round-eye. 
Any line of white above the iris is terrifying. It is the signal 
ferocity and madness in its excess; in its lesser position it sugg 
horror, even though it does not express it. The showing of while 
below the iris is used in death, or in dead faints. Let these two 
be added at one and the same time, and you have a combination 
which few persons can withstand. A man of strong nerve said th t 
he could endure most anything but the round-eye; the hypnot 
seeks to weaken the nerves. 

When we consider the effect of gazing at a small brig 
ball or button held near to the face, causing even strong nerve- 
fail and leading in some instances to the hypnotic sleep, we can- 
not wonder that the round-eye is an agent of depression. Fright- 
ening or unnerving a person is of great help to the operator. It 
is the best kind of depression. If there is genuine magnetism I - 
hind the round-eye, the pupil will distend showing a large field i 
black, and in this a phosphorescent glow may always be detected. 
The combination is a powerful one. and few persons, even the hard- 
iest, are able to resist it. The round-eye may be assumed wit] 
magnetism. 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 93 

i i 

^ 422 g 

Any person, possessing absolute belief in the power, 
may hypnotize a qualified subject. , 

This is the 422d Kalston Principle. We are gradually brought 
out of the lower strata of preparation into the higher steps in the 
art of mesmerizing. To sum up as we proceed, we find that the 
first essential in the direct practice is to acquire the facility of mak- 
ing your thought-waves, coincide with those of your proposed sub- 
ject. Prior to all this is the acquisition of the nobler faculty of 
magnetism proper. Its chief uses are not in the hypnotic line; the 
latter is impossible without it however. Next is the round-eye, if 
the speediest success is desired. 

Then conies the character of your will, known as abso- 
lute belief. This is hard to understand and still harder to acquire. 
It shades into so many other mental phases that an exact descrip- 
tion is essential at this place. One side tends away toward faith, 
an exalted exercise of the religious function; the other side leans 
toward a set opinion that has no life whatever. Absolute belief is 
not faith. The latter may exist without knowledge; the former 
knows and acts as it knows. An illustration of faith is seen in 
the attempts to cure by hope, assisted by prayer, and resting 
solely in the energy of such hope and prayer, unattended by 
any knowledge of the disease or of the necessary means of cure. 
The faith of the healers counts for nothing but accidents; but 
if it reaches the patient and meets him in a morbid condi- 
tion, it may have some influence toward a cure; but it must 
capture his belief to do so fully. A healer acts as a partial mes- 
merist in such case. 

Contrary to this is the set opinion that so often passes 
for certainty of belief. It is the handmaid of ignorance. A per- 
son must be weak in mind to- hold a fixed idea against all argu- 
ment or proof; or to hold such an opinion when there is no proof 
either to sustain or defeat it. Without knowledge, without data 
for guidance, judgments, are passed upon persons and things and 
minds are set with immovable fixedness, and there the- mental 
operations seem to find their limit. Such brains are inactive. 
They move in little channels short distances and come to a halt like 
the mule in the woods. 



94 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

Absolute belief is activity not stagnation. The mind 
thinks, and its operations are founded upon facts, upon data, upon 
things that live as knowledge and make the belief reasonable. A 
successful mesmerist was once asked what constituted the source 
of his power. He replied: "I find a reasonable prospect of succeed- 
ing in selecting my subject; I then know to a certainty that I can 
put him to sleep. I let nothing shake this belief in my mind. If 
I fail, it is always at the start; I do not make up my mind too soon." 
It was said of him that, after choosing from a number of persons 
those whom he desired to remain to test his powers, he never had a 
failure. One critic of his success said that he selected only those 
that any mesmerist might safely regard as sure conquests. This re- 
quired skill and judgment. 

It is easily seen that success starts with a careful selec- 
tion made after a talk or harangue intended to impress the list- 
eners; this selection including those who seem to throw their 
minds into the line of thought directed by the operator. He gen- 
erally makes a second selection, and retains only the sure cases. In 
a public exhibition he is compelled to discharge some who need but 
a little longer time than he can afford to give them; for a slow and 
tedious manipulation will only tire the audieuce. One of the 
private hypnotists, that is one who never gave public exhibitions, 
depended upon a single choosing among parlor audiences; and he 
was credited with being uniformly successful. He refused to 
teach others; but confided his secret to a friend. It was — Make 
up your mind and stick to it, without even thinking that failure is 
possible. 

In another series of successful cases, the hypnotist 
maintained his secret during the years of his public career. He 
took pupils, charging them from one to five hundred dollars each; 
and, although some two or three acquired the power, they found 
that he had not imparted it to them. Before he died, he stated 
that he had told them nothing of the real art. fearing that the 
spread of the practice would result in much misery; and being 
questioned for the secret he gave it as follows: "Authors say that 
mesmerism is not the work of animal magnetism. I know that 
it is. But it is not all. ISTot one magnetic person in a thousand 
can mesmerize. Why not? Because he cannot summon courage. 
He must believe in himself so completely that nothing can sli: 
him. If he has magnetism and knows he can control a person, that 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 95 

is all. It is faith in himself. " By this he meant absolute belief in 
his powers. 

In the foregoing case the hypnotist always made 
selections from among those who were candidates for the sleep; and 
this shows that his belief was confined to those who were qualified 
subjects. He failed in the first rounds with nine out of ten; he 
rarely ever failed when he had taken his pick of the remainder. 
Therefore, his "secret" must be considered in the light of using his 
absolutism of belief on subjects that were duly qualified. This 
brings us to the next principle for guidance as to what is meant by 
the term. All things from all sources indicate that each essential 
stated herein was used by every hypnotist. 



38 




423 


1 

S 



A qualified hypnotic subject is one who is nervously 
diseased, and whose belief may be captured. 

This is the 423d Ralston Principle. It may seem like an 
amendment to some of the things previously stated under other 
principles; but further examination will show that it is not. Man}' 
things are true in limitation; and certain facts appear here as 
though to confront us at the start. 

In the first place it is true that every hypnotic subject is 
nervously diseased. This has been proved by an examination of 
great numbers without finding an exception. It may then be laid 
down as a fact that nervous defects lie at the bottom of the yield- 
ing of the will to another. Yet not all such persons can be con- 
trolled; although one good authority publicly announced that he 
believed they could in time be brought under proper subjection. 
The best opinions are the other way. To be nervously diseased 
means that the functions of the system are morbid, deficient or 
erratic. It is only the first class that come under the hypnotist's 
power at all times; although the others do occasionally. 

The brain is a part of the complex nervous system, and 
the mind is seated in the same system, so that thought, belief and 
will are tainted when the nerves are not in their normal condition . 
Hence it is seen why the belief may be captured, the will subdued 
and the thought-waves made to coincide with those of a normal 



96 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

mind. Health of body, purity of Wood and normal nerves go to- 
gether. Study any hypnotic, and you will find weakness in all of 
these functions, generally a pallid face and poor blood attended by 
an easily disturbed nervous system, which is unprepared to resist 
the control of another. 



Course of Procedure in Hypnotism. 

The laws embodied in the Ralston Principles now bring 
us to the crisis in the effort to obtain such power over the mind 
of another as will reduce him to a cataleptic condition, awaken his 
sub-conscious faculty, and make him a new individual for the time 
being. This is a serious proposition. When once such person is 
made a hypnotic, he is of less value to himself and to others. To 
subjugate a human being means more than it at first seems. He is, 
while in the cataleptic state, the tool of the operator, empowered 
with the purposes of the latter, and superhuman to a degree. 

Before you seek to acquire this art, then, it is advisable 
to look into the results to be attained, and ask if they warrant the 
study, the practice and the dangers they involve; not dangers to 
you, but to others. It would seem that the weight of disadvantages 
outbalance the gain; for all that you can gain is summed up in 
three things: a knowledge that you possess the power, the amuse- 
ment, if such it can be called, produced by the antics of the subject, 
and the wonderful realism of the sub-conscious faculty. We are of 
the belief that the last-named advantage is the only one that can be 
deemed satisfactory or worth pursuing. Scientists are turning their 
attention to this study. 

It may be justifiable to acquire the power of mesmerism 
for the purpose of experimenting with the sub-conscious mind. It 
may prove valuable. Some careful investigators predict that an 
immense field of usefulness is yet to be opened up in this one direc- 
tion. The difficulties of electricity as a lighting and motive agency 
were so great that all but a few persons declared they could not be 
met and overcome; yet the searching mind of man has found a way. 
When mesmerism is able to throw a subject into the sleep that 
opens out the sub-conscious faculty, shining like an all-piercing 
light into every nook and corner of the world, revealing the 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 97 

thoughts of others, seeing into opaque objects, glancing beyond 
solid barriers, as though they did not exist at all, and serving the 
natural senses like messengers of peerless speed, it is more than 
probable that science will find avenues of usefulness to add to the 
comforts of life or increase the fund of knowledge, through the 
many varieties of employment to which they can be put. 

With this understanding, let us proceed. Remember 
that subjects are not easily secured; that their full consent should 
be first obtained; or, if they are mentally weak, or too young, others 
who are caring for them should acquiesce in the efforts to make 
them cataleptics. Most operators seek boys or young men, from 
fourteen to twenty years of age. Girls are as easily controlled, but 
public sentiment is decidedly against the idea of hypnotizing them. 
Occasionally men and women, as husband and wife, are made sub- 
jects. The best trances are produced in women of any age above 
twenty-five; and some girls have been developed into trance-medi- 
ums by the process of hypnotism. It is advisable to select mature 
women for such purposes, and full consent of all parties concerned 
should be first obtained.^ Some younger women have brought 
charges of assault against mesmerists; one claiming that she was 
ruined while in this state. In a certain divorce case, brought by the 
husband, it was claimed that the wife conspired with her paramour 
to have him, the complainant, put into a hypnotic sleep, so that he 
might not know what was going on between the two. 

For these reasons it is better to avoid accepting females 
as subjects, unless elderly women are sought as candidates for de- 
velopment into trance-mediums, or clairvoyants; and then solely in 
the interest of science. Young boys and girls do not seem to pos- 
sess the sub-conscious faculty in as ripe a condition as older per- 
sons; which may indicate that it is, like the body and natural mind, 
capable of unfolding and growing. Even the most mature of the 
sub-conscious intelligences gives out nothing of especial value. 
Like the phonograph, it is something to wonder at and play with, 
having slight incidental worth. Time may prove its place in life, 
and for this we all wait hopefully. Our remarks apply to the 
lower and middle strata of the sub-conscious faculty. In the realm 
of exaltation, it appears and other forms so different that we would 
hardly recognize it as the higher stratum of the power we are here 
discussing. 



98 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 



Steps in Hypnotism 






First Step : Magnetism. — There is now no doubt that 
there are two opposite forces in human vitality; one is positive, it 
builds up and invigorates body, mind and nerves, and is properly 
called magnetism; the other is negative and represents the loss of 
magnetism, and it is properly called hypnotism. These two sides 
of vitality are as opposite as light and shadow. Magnetism is not 
hypnotism; the latter cannot exist where the former is present in 
the same person; the latter is caused by the former. So shadow 
cannot exist where the light is present; shadow is the opposite of 
light; it is caused by light. When we use the word ''caused/' we 
mean induced or given existence. 

Proofs abundantly multiplied attest the fact that mag- 
netism is a high and noble use of the vito-eleetricity, and as such 
may be developed and increased almost at will. It may be ac- 
quired. A person who possesses none at all is already a mesmeric 
subject; such a person can acquire magnetism and thus break the 
spell over him, if it has been established. All persons may acquire 
magnetism; all may increase what they have; all may reach some 
goal of greatness through it; but these acquisitions are born of 
effort, and most persons fail for lack of persevering cotmi s This 
volume and its predecessor furnish the means: and they are com- 
plete in every way. The first step, therefore, is provided you in 
these books, in so far as they relate to the acquisition of magnet- 
ism and its development under proper us 

Second Step: Hypnotic Principles.— Tin >e precede in 
the present department of this volume, and should be understood 
by careful reading, rereading and study. There is some power in 
knowledge. Reading makes a full mind; thinking makes a wis 
one. 

Third Step: Thought coincidence.— This is attainable 
in the manner and by the methods stated tinder the Ralston Prin- 
ciples already given. 

Fourth Step : Absolute belief.— This is fully set forth 
under the preceding laws, immediately prior to this page. 

Fifth Step: Capturing the belief.— This, also, is an 
associate part of the step to which reference has just been made. 






REALM OF HfPNOTISM 99 

Sixth Step : Selection.— ThfS operator must select prob- 
able subjects. These are found by skilful addresses or conversa- 
tions, uttered solely for the purpose of impressing those in attend- 
ance. All this has been carefully set forth in the pages immedi- 
ately preceding. 

Seventh Step : Manipulation.— There is no law under- 
lying this point of practice, and there can be no principle for it. 
The use of manipulation is for the purpose of deceiving the sub- 
ject. After there has been established a coincidence of thought- 
waves on the general topic of hypnotism and its wonders, with a 
plunge into the awful seriousness of its results, there should be a 
shifting of the topic toward the direction of sleep; for through the 
portals of sleep the mind is transformed from a conscious to a 
sub-conscio'us condition. It is true that a ready subject needs no 
manipulation, and may pass with eyes wide open from one to the 
other realm. 

Deception combines three things : It serves to make 
the thought-waves coincide; it secures the belief of the subject; it 
produces sleep; all three great essentials; and they are comprised 
in the manipulation relating to sleep. In the simplest cases the 
subject is told to close his eyes; that he is sleepy will or will not 
become apparent to him. If it is apparent, the rest is easy in most 
cases. If he proposes to resist, there is no use in attempting the 
conquest of his will. If he is neutral, the real test is aided. If 
he tries to yield, some will power is exerted, and this is an offset 
to the work. It is better to request him not to give himself up, 
and not to make resistance. The usual advice to be willing or to 
yield, means that he should remain passive, making no effort either 
way; and this is best. 

The most effective deception is that which pretends to 
bring on sleep, for if it captures the will, sleep ensues. Many 
things tend to do this. Looking at a small, round, bright object 
will tire the optic nerve, and when it seeks rest, the idea of sleep 
is at once paramount. Indeed there are some persons who go to 
sleep at night looking at a light in the room; some follow a star 
for a few minutes and fall asleep; some tire the eyes by uplifting 
them. It is as hard comparatively to hold up the eye-balls as it 
is to hold up the arm. Mesmerists ask their subjects to sit, to 
throw the head back, and to look up. In so doing they take a 
position from which it is difficult to gaze at him, or his raised 



100 UNIYERSAJj MAGNETISM 

f 

Hand, without producing we/iriness of the eyes; and this suggests 
drowsiness. f 

If he is magnetic his eyes will glow ; if he is strongly so, 
the eye-halls will assume a setting in their lids known as the round- 
eye which in itself is terrible to look upon. Fear is depressing; 
horror, more so; and this, combined with the fixed gaze upon the 
phosphorescence in the pupil of the iris, cannot help lead on to the 
hypnotic drowsiness which soon lapses into full sleep. A strong 
degree of magnetism must exist in the operator, and his subject 
must have a weak degree which is to be expelled by the strong. 
These various influences should be fully understood. 

The deception does its work in several ways. Looking 
at a bright object exhausts the magnetism in the brain of the sub- 
ject; the eye accomplishes the same purpose as the bright object, 
added to which is the knowledge that it is the eye of a human 
being, with a brain behind it, and a power directing its brightnc— . 
Then the subject should be made to look up; this is wearying, and 
the tired feeling seems to him to be real sleep caused by the opera- 
tor. Of course if he knows all the facts he would not be deceived. 
A reader of this volume would resist any such influence. Holding 
the chin up, or throwing the head back, tires the neck muscl. -. 
and their weariness extends by sympathy into the brain, produc- 
ing sleep. 

All such degrees of influence tend in two directions. 
If it is the mere trickery of tiring the eyes and brain-muscles, 
natural sleep would follow, and even a magnetic person would suc- 
cumb. There could be no hypnotic condition. While, however, 
the drowsiness is coming on, there should be plainly made an eit'ort 
to make known to the subject the fact that he is coming under the 
control of the operator. He is told that he cannot open his eyes. 
This is said after some manipulation, generally by rubbing the 
arms, hands, eyebrows and forehead. The reason for telline him 
of his inability to keep awake at such time is for the purpose of 
capturing his belief that it is so, and this must be accompanied 1 f 
some bit of proof like that mentioned. The least drowsiness, or 
the least bit of sticking of the lids together, suffices to alarm or to 
convince him. 

Manipulation is important when the operator is very 
magnetic and the subject not so;' for it traces the lines of flowing 
vitality along the nerves and soothes them into quietude. Thus a 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 101 

magnetic massageur is able to drive away pain for a while by ex- 
pelling the nervous-fluid which interprets pain to the brain. If 
the hand is inflamed and tender, it causes suffering only because 
the nervous-fluid passes from its location to the brain; cut this off 
and there is no sensation of any kind. So the mesmerist is able 
to reduce the nerve-life at any part of the body if he has magnet- 
ism. Any magnetic person may do the same thing. To rub the 
hands from the wrists down to the tips of the fingers; to press 
upon any nerve in the palm, notably that of the longest finger; 
to rub the forehead downward at a line between the eyes; to rub 
the brows outward from a place above the nose to the temples; to 
press hard upon the bone at the top of the nose or base of the fore- 
head between the eyes, while tipping the head back; all these are 
soothing and deadening movements, provided the operator is mag- 
netic and the subject is not or is weakly so. Let this work proceed 
with a steady and unflinching determination to conquer, and no 
qualified subject will escape. 



Hypnotic Suggestions. 

To begin with the operator must let the candidates know 
in advance that they cannot come out of the sleep voluntarily; they 
must have a signal in advance. This may be the words, "All 
right," accompanied by a snapping of the fingers. In case they 
are not so released they will sleep it off, but wake up tired with a 
dull headache; and some persons do not arouse for twenty-four 
hours or more. 

The first spells of sleep should be short ; the patient 
ought to be brought out frequently. The simplest suggestions are 
the best at the start. The primary challenge, "You cannot open 
your eyes," serves at the beginning. Then the memory should be 
dislodged; and this is done by hurrying the claim, "You have for- 
gotten your name," repeated so fast, while the subject is being 
manipulated about the eyes and forehead, that even a wide-awake 
man could not find an opportunity for uttering the syllables of his 
name; but, before there is time to collect the thoughts, the operator 
says, "All right; now you know your name," and those about ex- 
press wonderment or laugh; all of which disconcerts the subject. 



102 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

You see there must be a quick passing of a bright mind from one 
idea to another, and no opportunity for a slow thinker to express 
himself. Soon he comes to believe that he is being controlled, and 
this is all that is wanted to complete the conquest. Hypnotism is 
like cooking; it must be skilfully done; no clumsy work will suffice; 
one person may fail by the very same efforts with which another 
may succeed. 

While the primary suggestions are those stated; 
namely, inability to keep the eyes open, and a loss of memory; 
others should follow in a gamut of ease, the harder ones being 
reached later. "You cannot get up out of your chair," is a simple 
suggestion; but, if it is apparent that he can get up, the pretended 
spell should be broken before he proves it. A successful hypno- 
tist may place one hand upon the shoulder of the subject, and bear 
down hard, while exciting attention to another idea so that he will 
not realize the pressure, and thus aid in capturing his belief. 
Skill of deception is well illustrated by the plan adopted by one 
who always asked his patient to sit forward in the chair, and place 
his feet far out in front on the floor; he would press him back by 
protruding his finger into his shoulder very gently: a pressure that 
was hardly felt; and of course the body could not be raised. Let 
any one try this without the practice of mesmerism. 

While increasing the mechanical difficulty of arising, 
he would detract his attention from the position, then exclaim: 
"Now you cannot get up out of your chair. Try hard. You can- 
not rise," all the while manipulating at the eyes and forehead. A 
smart mind would grasp the facts, and the delusion would end. A 
weakling comes to believe the claim, and is soon captured. 
capable minds are hypnotized. Sometimes capable pers - are. 
There is a distinction. One style of practice is worth considering. 
An operator would find his subject getting up from the chair and 
would talk on in this way: "You cannot rise. No, see, you cannot. 
There, now, I will let you: there you are: all right/' This jargon 
proceeded so quickly that the subject' thought his efforts to rise 
were divided into two parts; first, when he could not: second, when 
he could. The fact is, in the brief period when lie was trying to 
get up, he was told he could not; but as soon as the operator found 
that he was getting up, he pretended to release him. The subject 
was asked if lie felt any influence, and said: "I positively could not 
get up till lie told me I could." He made a good subject. You 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 103 

see that it requires quickness of change from one idea to another. 
A delay of two seconds would have undeceived the person and the 
conquest might not have been completed. 

After the first three suggestions of sleep, loss of mem- 
ory and inability to rise, the rest of the progress is easy. Let 
these three be confirmed, and there need be no doubt of further 
results. The only rule to follow is that of a gradation of suggestion, 
perfecting each as it is tried, and avoiding those that seem to be 
out of the line of action in the physical or mental character of 
the subject. It is one peculiarity of a hypnotic that he is ready 
to imagine himself anything you please, if it is at all within his 
line; and this can be ascertained only by suggesting to him one per- 
sonage after another. 

Some instances of suggestion may be interesting and 
helpful. Commonplace things are quickly caught up. Say the 
chair is a broom and the floor must be swept; any subject will at 
once seize the chair and use it as a broom. Tell him his coat is on 
wrong side out; he will look at the sleeves, examine the front and 
sides, then quickly doff it, pull the sleeves through and wear it 
wrong, thinking it is right. Tell him the chair is hot, he will look 
at you, wonder why he did not notice it all the time he was seated 
there, then suddenly spring out of the chair suffering from burns. 
Say his boot is full of water, he will take it off, pour out the water, 
attempt to dry it and then put it on again. 

It is when better things are suggested that he hesitates. 
They must be in line. Thus a person who could not play the 
piano, would rarely be able to do so when in a mesmeric sleep; al- 
though there are some claims that beautiful execution has occurred 
and music has been improvised. We do not see how the sub-con- 
scious faculty can limber stiff ringers, but it is very clear that the 
knowledge of the airs and all requirements except the finger execu- 
tion may come in such sleep, even if music was unknown to the 
natural intelligence. Strength may be imparted by suggestion, 
but skill cannot. The action of a blacksmith mav be sus^ested, 
but the care of the watchmaker is out of the line of one not used to 
the work. These are samples of the tendencies of the subject. 

Much nonsense is evolved from the experiments usually 
made; and this is to be deplored. The condition is a serious one 
in a hygienic sense, and a solemn one if there is hope of getting 
light from other realms of knowledge. The foolishness arises more 



104 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

out of the mind and life of the operator than of the subject; and 
the rapidity of thought in the former is taken up by the latter, 
seemingly producing original action. Then many ideas are caught 
from bystanders or persons at a distance; so that the supposed 
wonders of the subject's action are really reflections rather than 
creations. This makes the experiments somewhat unsatisfactory. 

1 424 I 

There are three stages of hypnotism : those of sleep, 
reflection and clairvoyance. 

This is the 424th Ealston Principle. The great majority of 
mesmerists stop at sleep; others at the stage of suggestion; and few 
even develop their subjects into clairvoyants. One is always a step 
beyond the other. It is probable that all subjects can be carried 
through the three stages. The use of the hypnotic sleep is avail- 
able in operations where pain must be suppressed, and where an 
anaesthetic is not advisable. The same patient may be developed 
into the suggestion stage by the efforts of the operator in the man- 
ner already stated. This is called the stage of reflection, because 
it is probable that the subject reflects ideas from others and origi- 
nates very little if anything. 

The third or clairvoyant stage is directly the outgrowth 
of the second. It is rarely developed by hypnotists. They seem 
content to produce the sleep as an evidence of their powers; and 
to induce their subjects to obey them blindly; but few have the 
time or interest to open up the sub-conscious mind to its appro- 
priate estate. The sleep is never like that of natural slumber, un- 
less the brain has become wearied in a mechanical way: a condi- 
tion that may be effected without the aid of a hypnotist. "When 
the sleep is hypnotic, the patient may be awakened by sug_ 3- 
tions with some difficulty. He should be made to pass quickly 
through the one stage to the other. 

In order to avoid a slumber in which suggestions will 
not be readily caught, he should be awakened at once, put to sleep 
again, then awakened soon, and led to efforts to rise out of the 
chair, lower his raised arm, repeat his name, call himself by a wrong 
name, and so on. until it is evident that he is likely to obev what he 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 105 

is commanded to do. Then he may go off to sleep for five or ten 
minutes, and the operator will be able to lead him at will; simply 
taking him by the hand and ordering this or that thing to be done. 
The passes of the hands of the hypnotist downward by the head of 
the subject, as though stroking him, although the hands do not 
touch the head, are will-movements done to sustain the silent will 
of the operator. They are quick, decisive and magnetic; but re- 
act upon the latter, so that he may maintain his energy of purpose 
over the subject. 

When the powers of reflection are developed, the at- 
tempt should be made at once to lead the way to original action. 
Hypnotic sleep is quietude; the stage of reflection is one of depend- 
ence upon the minds of others; the final stage is creative, and is 
called so, or original, because the subject goes to realms beyond the 
knowledge of the operator; and here the sub-conscious faculty first 
has sway. The proper and only effective course of procedure is 
to lead the subject on by complex suggestions. He will very soon 
step over into the other realm, or give gleams of an inner intelli- 
gence. It requires care to direct this development aright. 

A complex suggestion involves two or more ideas in one 
group. A subject was asked to make a few remarks to an imag- 
inary audience; he stood erect, took on an attitude of importance, 
caught his breath, scraped his throat a few times, and started out 
to speak. The ideas were weak and the words common. He was 
then asked to speak like some great orator. Here two ideas were 
involved. He hesitated, seemed to fall into a temporary slumber 
while standing, then assumed a new attitude and a grander ex- 
pression; but he could not speak. It was then beyond his develop- 
ment. On being questioned, however, he accurately and minutely 
described a well-known orator, who was at that time speaking in 
a neighboring city. 



'/ have a friend, a hinder friend has no man ; 

Like an ingrate, I left my friend abruptly ; 
Left him, to muse on the old familiar faces. 

Ghost-like I paced round the haunts of my childhood, 
Earth seemed a desert I was bound to traverse. 

Seeking to find the old familiar faces." 



106 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

ts & 

1 425 | 

Complex suggestion develops clairvoyance. 

This is the 425th Ralston Principle. Our remarks in the pre- 
ceding paragraph will serve to introduce the law involved in the 
present proposition. Some otherwise skilful operators have failed 
to get beyond the reflection stage, because they knew not how to 
lead their- subjects on to the third condition. We have examined a 
number of these cases of failure, and have always found them due 
to one cause, namely an inability to connect the second and third 
stages. 

Failure is sometimes recorded until reference to the 
union of the first and second stages. This has been analyzed, i 
found due to the fact that the hypnotist puts his subject to sleep 
and attempts to wake him to action, instead of which he awakens 
naturally. The prevention of this failure is in the early steps of 
procedure. When the belief is being captured as to sleep, let it also 
be caught as to action. This we have explained fully. You say to 
the subject, "You are going to sleep, and you cannot keep awake/* 
The sleep is really coming on; but. before it is established, say, 
"You have forgotten your name,'* and prove it; then say. "You 
cannot lower vour arm/' all the while making the tendencv to 
slumber deeper. After a while, pass on to other suggestions, and in 
this way you prevent profound sleep; the act of going out of natural 
consciousness is accompanied by waking up into sub-conscious ac- 
tivity. 

In successfully leading the subject from the second t-> 
the third stages, there is no better way than to employ com] 
suggestions. We will look at some examples of its power and use- 
fulness. One case has already been given, in the paragraph imme- 
diately preceding our principle. In another instance, the subiYc:. 
was made to act as a dressmaker; being a woman she took to this 
■quickly, though it appeared afterward that she had never been em- 
ployed in that work. Left a little to herself, she began to lay out 
cloth, arrange the parts, use imaginary needles, threads, thir: 
and other adjuncts, even going so far as to lit another person. All 
these details were caught from the operator or other person-. • 
if they disclaimed thinking of them. The knowledge is in i 



REALM OF STPNOTISM 107 

brains somewhere. The subject would go on alone for a while, 
then lag for other details, till urged specifically; and so she pro- 
ceeded. 

While her actions were close to the sub-conscious state, 
they were not a part of the realm. Single suggestions alone had 
been made. The operator was told to hint at others. This was the 
first, "Yon are a good dressmaker;" to which she replied, "I think 
I am." "You cannot, though, equal Mrs. D — , or Mrs. G — , and 
some others I know. There is a good dressmaker at her work. Do 
you see her?" "No." "Look again." "Where is she? I see no 
one. I am here in my own house. This [pointing to a chair] is 
your wife; and I am fitting her to a dress. It is a wretchedly bad 
fit." "No, you are not in your house. This [chair] is not my wife, 
it is a dog." "Ugh! I am afraid of dogs! Why did you not tell 
me?" "The dog is gone. Now, look, where you are going. Here 
is another room, in another house, belonging to a very fine dress- 
maker, and you are looking at her. What do you see?"' A long- 
pause ensued, and the subject then went into an accurate descrip- 
tion of a woman in a city ten miles away, whom she had never seen. 

On tracing the affair it was found that she never heard of 
the dressmaker, but that a friend of one of those present had em- 
ployed her. The question then arose, how could this subject get 
information from the mind of one who was not known to her, but 
was merely a friend of one of those who were within reach. But 
it is hardly possible to account for the flights of the sub-conscious 
faculty. ; The explanation has been made, as follows, . whether 
correct or not, we will not now state: There were six observers in 
the room where the subject was playing dressmaker. One of them 
had been thinking of her friend, who was not known to any other 
person present. The clairvoyant keenness of the subject may have 
touched the mind of this individual, and gone out at once to the 
mind of her friend, there getting light as to the distant shop of the 
dressmaker. In, at first, an incoherent way, she gave a very accu- 
rate description of the room and the transactions; so much so that, 
when the proof was finally received, the one question was, how 
could she do it? And the}' said, it must be proof of a spirit world. 
Nonsense. 

You must be cautious about claiming that the inner 
knowledge of things that ordinarily cannot be ascertained through 
the natural senses, is proof of spirits. It cannot be. The electrical 



108 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

current, which now enables one man to talk to another long dis- 
tances away, the telegraphic process of photography, and other 
wonderful mysteries could only be ascribed to spirits by the igno- 
rant. Not until the scientific process is known can a mind accept 
it as rational. What gods there might have been, if the first two 
users of the telephone had exploited that wonder in England two 
centuries ago. They could have founded a new religion, if they 
had not been hung for witchcraft. So the guns of the Puritans led 
the poor Indian minds to believe that the men who pulled the trig- 
gers were importations from a land of spirits. 

A little knowledge concerning the sub-conscious faculty 
may prick the bubble that now sustains all the balderdash of belief 
as to spirits and the soul-life of the departed. The one standard 
of credence is summed up in the single inquiry, "How could she 
have known the truth of what she spoke?" Then, when no one 
answers, there comes the refrain, "Of course, you do not know. If 
you knew you would tell. If you do not know, then there is no 
way of explaining it, except on the theory of spirits.'' Xo argu- 
ment could be weaker. It is the sophistry of the Indians, the phi- 
losophy of sorcery. The fact is now dawning over the world that 
the sub-conscious faculty is an unharnessed power, driving wildly 
about over prairies unoccupied, but sooner or later, in all proba- 
bility, to be caught and used. Such is the past history of steam. 
Such is the present history of electricity. 

The chief characteristic of the sub-conscious faculty 
is its keenness of inner mental sight. It can see places, persons 
and objects, just as though they were present. It touches yoi 
mind; if you have nothing of what it seeks, it may pass on ti 
wings of your thought to the mind of another of whom you are 
thinking, or who is thinking of you while you do not know it; and 
in that other mind it may extract any information known or un- 
known to you; and, if it can flit about in this way, it can go to a 
third mind out of that of your friend, and there get information 
which you never heard of. The case of a distant orator's speech 
which a mesmeric subject followed, almost idea for idea, is truly 
marvelous until this is explained. 

It seems that a man was asked to make a speech ; a very 
common request with operators; due, probably, to the fact that 
most persons have listened to speeches, and some have hoped to 
make them. In the party there was a man who had a friend i 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 109 

the city where the orator was speaking; but he did not know where 
the friend was, nor had he any knowledge of the fact that the 
orator was to speak. He had been thinking of this friend. It is 
supposed that the sub-conscious mind of the subject had gone first 
to the thoughts of this individual; these caught the thought of the 
distant friend; these at once touched the mind of the latter many 
leagues away, — found him in an audience enthusiastically admiring 
the efforts of the orator, who was really a grand speaker; and, by 
this simple telegraphic communication, got to the words and ideas 
of the orator. Many hundreds of instances may be cited to prove 
that the sub-conscious faculty will do all this and much more. 

When the operator finds that he has the power over 
another, there comes the desire to test it to the utmost. The field 
of development in the immediate future, is in the wondrous 
marvels of sub-conscious doings. How this ambition tends may be 
seen in the following case: A principal of a high school, who was 
university bred, married a very beautiful and accomplished woman; 
her only failing being a belief in spirits and spiritualism. She had 
a cousin who had married a man of wealth; to them a son and two 
daughters were born. The family were all killed in a railroad dis- 
aster, she being the only survivor. She came to live with her 
cousin, the wife of the principal. 

Her mind had been set against spiritualism from her 
youth. The wife of the principal whom we will call Mrs. M., al- 
most persuaded her cousin, whom we will call Mrs. E., to take up 
the study of spirits, in the hope of ascertaining something of the 
fate after death of her husband and three children. The princi- 
pal, Mr. M., became interested. He said: "I am informed that 
clairvoyance is the outgrowth of mesmerism. I know a friend who 
is gifted with the power; let us call him in/' They objected. It 
was a family affair. Mr. M. could learn to hypnotize. He investi- 
gated a little; found that the art was being taught; took lessons 
solely from a book; became an expert hypnotist; and in two years 
was able to control Mrs. E. 

The complex suggestions made to her are given here, 
as they may serve as valuable examples to other students. Mrs. 
E. was willing and anxious to become a hypnotic subject; Mrs. M, 
was not. The former tried hard to assist Mr. M. in securing con- 
trol over her; this effort was a mistaken one; it involved an exer- 
cise of her will power and thus kept alive her magnetism. She 



110 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

also practiced looking at a bright ball until she was nearly a case 
of self-hypnotism. This might have resulted in an inability to 
pass to the second stage, that of suggestion. One evening Mr. M. 
found her depressed and discouraged. He felt a slight hint of 
his own power as she drooped under his gaze. In a little while she 
fell back in the chair asleep. 

He at once awakened her and tried the first suggestion. 
" You have forgotten your name/' "Xo, I have not. It is Mrs. 

, Mrs. ." " Now, you know it. "Wake up all right." 

The second's hesitation captured her belief; and he pretended to 
awaken her in time to allow her to speak the name. This she 
thought due to his permission. So the belief was captured. Had 
he waited another second she would have spoken her name and 
thus lost faith in his power, although she was trying hard to help 
him. So slight an incident is often a turning point. The next 
step was to make her believe she was another person. This suc- 
ceeded. After a few more simple suggestions, he began to employ 
the complex. 

The first of these was the idea that she was rowing on 
a river, and was trying to pass another boat. k, "\Yho is in that 
boat? See! Look quick!" She tried to ascertain, but it was 
clouded. Then he told her she was riding horseback; she stood up, 
assumed the attitude of a horsewoman as nearly as possible, and 
proceeded on her way. This was a simple suggestion. He made 
it complex by stating that a strange man was crossing the road. 
Immediately she saw him; he seemed to cat eh the bridle of her 
horse; she cut him with the whip, and he fell. She appeared to 
dismount, kneel at his side and nurse him. All these were done 
without further attempts to influence her. The complex sugges- 
tion of the horseback riding and the man coming to interfere, ac- 
complish all. 

It being certain that she was a good subject, one night 
in each week was set aside for experiments; the only question being 
as to the expediency of hurrying too soon into the topic most near 
and dear to her, This was Saturday night. Some weeks went by, 
during which her mind was kept on pleasant things. She accu- 
rately described a walk through a park she had never visited, lo- 
cated every statue in it except three, and made a drawing of the 
ponds, in which she placed some new details that were unknown 
to Mr. and Mrs. M. They had often seen the ponds and the park. 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 111 

Mrs. E. had never been in the State. To ascertain if the new de- 
tails were correct, letters were written to friends who lived near the 
park, and it was found that three of the details, one a bridge, had 
been added very recently, while a fourth, was being planned. 

Here was seen the photographic power of sub-con- 
sciousness, Mrs. R. could not have taken her ideas solely from 
the mind of Mr. and Mrs. M. They gave her the start. She must 
have caught from them the locality of the park, and there is no 
doubt that her mind walked all through the place, and actually sazv 
what zvas there. More than this, she saw what was in the minds 
of men who were still at work on future improvements of the park. 
This seems marvelous; but when we consider the keenness and 
quickness, as well as the speed of travel and the transparent clear- 
ness of the sub-conscious faculty, we should not be surprised at its 
pranks. 

It happened at about this time that some silverware 
was missed at the home of Mr. M. A servant was suspected. It 
was thought a good idea to see if Mrs. R. could discover the cause 
of the loss or the whereabouts of the silver; but it was feared that 
the suspicions in the minds of Mr. and Mrs. M. would furnish a 
wrong foundation for the subject to act upon. When in a mes- 
meric sleep she was asked if all the silverware was in the house 
and she said "Yes" without hesitation. "Where is it?" "Some 
of the ware is in the dining-room; look here, see the spoons and 
forks," "But they are not in the dining-room." "ISfo, they are 
here." "Where?" "In the house." "What part of the house?" 
"Here, can't you see? You must be blind; come this way; look 
out for that old chair." "What old chair?" "There it is. It has 
no back." "Where are the spoons and forks?" "Can you not see 
as well as I can?" She unrolled some imaginary material, rolled 
it up again, and repeated the operation. When pressed for further 
information, she became silent, except to say once that such in- 
quiries were intended to annoy her as the spoons and forks were in 
sight. 

They allowed her to awaken into a natural conscious- 
ness but she had no recollection of what had been said. It was a 
dark, rainy night without; and the gloom of the weather quickened 
her sense of growing clairvoyance. The three began to search for 
the silverware. They had three things as data; the house, the old 
chair with the back gone, and a roll of something in which the 



112 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

missing goods were concealed. They first went to the garret, 
thence down through the house to the cellar and found no chair of 
the description. They began to believe it was another house; but 
resolved to make the search very thorough; so they returned to the 
garret, and came carefully down, looking in corners, closets and 
even in a fireplace. In the cellar they became discouraged again, 
but passed through to a back vault where coal was sometimes 
stored. It was a low place. What was their surprise to find the 
broken chair! They looked in deathly whiteness at one another. 
Then there was part of a half rotten rug, rolled up in a heap. Here 
the silver was found. Awe-inspiring sometimes is the power of 
this inner faculty. 

More weeks and months went by, when one Saturday 
night she was put into an excellent mesmeric sleep, dropping into 
its embraces almost at the mere glance of the eye. Her health was 
unimpaired. She was told of a railroad wreck, of the death of her 
husband and children, and their absence from earth. "Where is 
Mr. E. and the children?" she was asked. A painful expression 
covered her face; then it cleared. "Who is this?" she inquired; 
then lay her head on the table 1 , the side of the face resting on her 
hand, while she reached out the other hand and seemed to stroke 
the hair of a child. "It is Cameron." This was the name of the 
eldest boy. "Are you much hurt?" She drew him to her breast 
and wept freely for a few minutes; then turned as though to 1 
to others. 

At this time her mind went back to the living days, when 
the whole family were united and happy. It was deemed best not 
to disturb this frame of mind; so the time was spent in that phase 
of it and the experiment was adjourned. With a look of triumph 
Mrs. M. said to her husband, "Do you now believe in spirits?"' and 
he said "No." What kind of intelligence is it that conn te s 
trivial a matter of proof with such a conclusion? Nothing had as 
yet occurred that could connect spirits with the memory of the 
living, The next week there came something more closely allied 
to the theory of a spirit world. The experiments were a week 
apart, because the physician who had attended Mrs. E. in her pre- 
vious illness following the shock of the calamity, advised that she 
be not put into cataleptic sleep oftener. 

When they next experimented the departed husband 
came to Mrs. R., stood by her side, laid his hand upon her shoulder, 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 113 

and talked in disjointed conversation. Here Mrs. M. was achii 
ing a triumph. Mr. M., excited though he was, and alarmed at the 
idea of talking to the dead, was yet calm enough to note the cir- 
cumstances under which the departed did the talking. He also 
knew that if he lost full control of his mental calmness, he would 
be in a semi-hypnotic state, in which any prevailing condition 
would be caught up and agreed to, as in an epidemic or contagion 
of mesmeric depression. This is well understood to be the trick 
of seancers in spiritualism. Given a hypnotic depression in minds 
already partly prepared to accept the statements made, added to 
which are low lights, gloomy surroundings, faces of wonderment 
and fear, and you have just the conditions under which each and 
every sub-conscious faculty will express itself; so that accumu- 
lated proof or testimony is obtainable to claims that are based upon 
the pranks of the inner brain; and what is in fact but nights of this 
faculty seem clothed with realism. 

Such a condition would make even a hall full of such 
minds incapable of giving reliable testimony. Mr. M. had read 
enough of the doings of sub-consciousness to know the danger of 
getting into a semi-hypnotic sleep. Yet he was frightened. His 
wife's face, a picture of wrapt absorption, still more alarmed him. 
He noticed that Mrs. K. wandered from the presence of her de- 
parted husband at every opportunity, unless he held her attention 
close by repeated suggestion. "He is saying that he cannot see me 
very plainly; that I am -far off to him. There is a flower that I 
wish to pick, if you will let go my hand." "Who has hold of your 
hand?" "Oh, no one. I thought you had." "Whom do you 
see?" "I see Mary in the kitchen; she is making bread." This 
reference was to the cook. She had wandered from her husband 
to the servant. 

By repeated efforts her attention was kept on the for- 
mer, and it was further learned that he was alive, but did not know 
where the children were. The question was repeatedly put to him, 
"Where are you?" and he evaded it for a long time, saying, "I am 
at your side," "I can see you," "I can hardly see you," "You are 
very far away and look to me as if I saw you through an inverted 
glass." Then at one time he said, "Hold up your hand, so I can 
take it." Mrs. R. seemed to lift her hand a few inches and drop it 
slowly to the table. She was asked to inquire how he was dressed, 
and he gave a description of a suit he wore ten years before his 



114 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

death. This sitting then adjourned. Mrs. M. was not sure she 
believed so much in spiritualism as before. Her husband explained 
to her the meaning of the sub-conseious faculty that gropes in dark 
places, flies about in hidden memories, takes little bits of informa- 
tion from other minds, and is always incoherent. 

The last described experiment was the most advanced 
of any yet; but it contained contradictory statements and must 
have got the description of the clothing from other minds, or the 
forgotten memories of those present. Still the}*- persisted. There 
were questions and answers which appeared in subsequent sittings, 
the replies being often indirect, some in writing, and most of them 
incoherent. "You know I am at your side always. I walk with 
you. I am behind you now, looking over your shoulder.'' AH 
this was in answer to the inquiry as to where he was. When asked 
about heaven, hell and purgatory, he said he was in all three; but 
on three different occasions; and again added that he was always 
with his widow, Mrs. E. When pressed as to who were with him, 
he gave names of persons both living and dead. He could not 
describe any part of heaven, hell or purgatory. Yet he called her 
his wife and went off into accounts of earthly mat tors that were 
surprises to her, and were proved true only after investigation. 

Despite the mixed stupidity and wonder of these replies, 
there was no doubt that Mrs. E. possessed excellent clairvoyant 
powers, as she proved in many ways. She got no important in- 
formation concerning the spirit world. . Some scientists in psy- 
chological matters were called in, and took the pains to show to 
Mr. and Mrs. M. that the best of genuine clairvoyants have never 
secured definite knowledge of the other realms of life. The won- 
ders of their sitting have appeared in their disclosures of earthly 
matters, and these have been so full of marvel as to astound all in- 
vestigators. Things never known to any of those present have 
been told clearly; but in all cases they have been things that were 
known to some persons whose acquaintance or connection could 
be traced, as in the case of the orator referred to, where the hyp- 
notic subject repeated the words of a great orator who was address- 
ing a distant audience in which sat a friend of one who was in the 
room with the subject. 

The best of all the so-called proofs of a spirit world 
fall to the ground under analysis. Mrs. 31. started in as a spirit- 
ualist; desiring further confirmation of her belief through the sub- 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 115 

conscious aid of Mrs. R.; but at the end of it all she declared that 
she ceased to believe in spirits or in spiritualism. When asked 
why she had changed her opinion she replied, "I have seen and 
have read what can be called honest evidence, and not a bit of it 
enlightens me on the matters of life after death. The true clair- 
voyants have gone further than any spiritualist in getting evi- 
dence. But what is it? Nothing but fragments of contradiction 
about spirit life, heaven and all that; never two statements alike; 
all a muddle from human minds, caught incoherently. This is 
not proof of heaven, or of spirit life. We know that clairvoyants 
are able to see wonderfully the doings of earth, past and present, 
and nothing is hidden; but that is all traceable through lines of 
thought. It is all strange." She abandoned her belief in spirit- 
ualism, now that she understands something of the nature of the 
inner mind. 

$ 426 fit 

f & 

Sub-consciousness does not prove spirit-life. 

This is the 426th Ralston Principle. It is true to-day, and 
may be true forever. Books are written on the claim that the 
pranks of this inner faculty are proof positive of the existence of 
the soul of the subject and of the souls of other persons. The 
only approach to such proof is in the fact that the sub-conscious 
mind is a clear-seeing faculty; its perception being more amazing 
than most of the marvels of life, except the telephone, the phono- 
graph, the kinetoscope, the electric-photograph and other strange 
inventions. 

Because an operation is not understood, why should 
every sensitive person run to the conclusion that it is the work of 
spirits? The epidemics of humanity were always charged to de- 
mons until they were traced to germs of disease. The comet was 
not understood, so men explained it as the flight of an angel com- 
ing to earth. It was proof positive, conclusive, convincing, over- 
whelming, until science spoke through astronomy. So with 
eclipses and other mysteries. But the absurdity of argument 
never reached so ridiculous a phase as when, in modern times, it 
attempts to link the whims of a limited action of the brain with a 
belief in spirits. 



116 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

Here is the sum and substance of the argument : "This 
woman, in a trance, told me of my brother's secret alliance with a 
woman, which came to an end over twenty years ago, both having 
died then. She told me where two boxes of letters could be found 
hidden in the cellars of two ruined houses. There they were found. 
I never knew of this alliance. ~So living person knew of it. She 
could not have read the minds of the living, therefore she must 
have read the minds of the dead; they alone knew. What proof 
more certain can you ask?" It does not require the analysis of a 
logician to show the disjointed character of her conclusions. Why 
should it be true that, because the minds of the living did not sug- 
gest this secret, it must have come from the minds of the dead? 

Let us look at this hardest of all sub-conscious nuts to 
crack. Had there been anywhere on earth a living being who knew 
the hiding-places of those letters, we could have explained it by 
clairvoyant telepathy; a process fully admitted. But no such per- 
son was known to be living. It will not do to say there might have 
been such a person somewhere, for that is pure guess-work; 
yet, before we have a right to ascribe phenomena to spirit in- 
fluence, we must exhaust not only probabilities but possibil- 
ities of earth; and it was certainly possible that some trusty 
servant, or some near friend of the brother or his ladv asso- 
ciate, might have been living when the clairvoyant told the secret. 
But there is a further explanation, which is likely to be the cor- 
rect one, as seen in the next principle. 

I 427 p| 

Every person possesses a sub-conscious mind. 

This is the 427th Ralston Principle. You and I, your family, 
your friends, each and every human being, sane or insane, is the 
owner of a sub-conscious mind. It cannot be tainted by diseafi 
or blighted by the maladies of the flesh. It is awake all night long, 
when you are slumbering; it never sleeps by day; it knows not 
weariness; it takes no food; it neither hungers nor thirsts; it is the 
intuitive nature of every man and woman. 

A great doctor said that he could not believe in the ex 
ence of the soul. Here is his argument: "I have the word of a 
majority of the members of my profession that the more they see 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 117 

of life and death, the less they believe in the soul, or in existence 
hereafter. I see a man asleep; where is his soul? I see a woman 
faint; where is her spirit-life? I see reason dethroned, and the 
moral agency a wreck; where is that moral-essence, the soul? It 
does not exist, it can do nothing for which it is responsible; for 
salvation depends upon the moral character in the religious belief. 
I see sleep, fainting, insanity, death; all grades of unconsciousness; 
and I know there is no soul beneath. Here is a man lying helpless, 
stunned by the blow of fallen timber; the fire is creeping toward 
him; it will burn him alive; he is not conscious; where is the im- 
mortal soul within him, and why does it not save him from the 
danger? It must know, or it is a worthless thing." So he con- 
vinced himself that death ends all. 

To show that neither side is proved by the arguments 
pro and con, we will follow out a personal matter. The physician 
referred to is of national reputation, if still living. He came to 
the author of this volume in a spirit of challenge, saying that we 
had no right to claim that the body was anything more than in- 
telligent matter. We were honored by his visit, and we felt unable 
to cope with him. He was in earnest, and would not go away until 
something more than "statements" were made. We went to a hos- 
pital in another locality, and. there lay a woman in absolute un- 
consciousness. "Where is her soul, her spirit? Is it in arm, foot, 
hand, leg? Cut them all off, and where is the soul? There is 
nothing left but head and trunk; the head may be crazy, the trunk 
diseased and rotten. Where is her spirit ? She has the same organs 
as the beast of burden: lungs, heart, stomach, liver, kidneys, 
entrails; she has the same brains as the beast, the two are larger 
relatively; the horse dies and dissolves. So does she. Where is her 
soul?" And he was in solemn earnest in his desire to get at some 
other evidence. 

He abandoned his extensive practice for a brief period 
and expressed a willingness to go anywhere on earth, or below, if 
he could be induced to change his mind. He had recently lost 
a dear friend by death, and hoped to receive more light concerning 
the problems of life. We met him at morning; went to the hospi- 
tal in the early afternoon; and sped away to another city in the 
evening. He saw the woman unconscious in the afternoon; we 
showed him another woman "more unconscious" in the evening. 
"What is this?" we asked. "Catalepsy," he said. The functions 



118 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

were almost totally suspended. We had him pinch the flesh, prick 
it with a pin, hold a lighted match to it till it was nearly blistered, 
and satisfy himself that it was a genuine case of cataleptic uncon- 
sciousness. 

This being done he was free to declare that there was no 
unconsciousness so profound, none so complete, none so near to 
death and nothingness as this. ."Now," said he, "where is the 
soul?" We said it was not a question of where the soul may he, 
but a question of his assertion being correct that there is no con- 
sciousness in a fainted person, in a sleeping person, in an insane 
person. We said, "You declare that when the mind is a blank, or 
is wrecked, there is no consciousness left." "Do you mean to say 
there is?" "We will see." With the assistance of a physician in 
whom our skeptic had full confidence from personal acquaintance, 
three evenings were spent with the cataleptic. 

The sub-conscious faculty was awakened. Still the 
body slept, and its functions remained suspended. The inner mind 
was awake, while needles and fire could not be felt on the flesh. 
This woman sang and laughed when they told her that a candle- 
flame was a beautiful rose, and our doubting doctor could not al- 
low her to be burned in the interests of science. "I know what 
catalepsy is," he said. "But how do you account for her full and 
free consciousness in another faculty, while nearly dead in lii 
"I do not know; is she a specialist in the gift of clairvoyance?" 
Then the resident physician said that he could develop the clair- 
voyant power in all cataleptics by taking them in the first si;._* 5. 
"I mean to say that all are subjects." This seemed a new propo- 
sition to the doctor. 

Our learned doubter then asked what proportion of hu- 
manity were capable of being hypnotized. "Most persons might 
be," was the answer. "What proportion of hypnotics may be made 
clairvoyants?" "All," said the physician. "Then, am I to under- 
stand that most persons have a consciousness that is alive when the 
body seems dead, as in fainting, sleep, catalepsy and insanity?" 
The resident physician asserted, with convincing citations and 
data, that all persons had such a consciousness. "We all have a sub- 
conscious mind," he declared. Our doubting doctor looked toward 
the author, who had said nothing, extended his hand and re- 
marked, "I should have known all this; but where is the soul?" 
We then said that the sub-conscious faculty was not evidence of 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 119 

the soul, but that its existence refuted his argument that there 
could not be a soul, because there was no consciousness in a person 
who was faint, asleep, insane, or dead. He turned to the resident 
physician and said, "I am free to admit that my argument has been 
demolished. Now, what does this sub-conscious mind indicate? 
"Why is it not the soul?" The other doctor laughed, as he replied, 
"It is not the soul because it is something else; it is the sub-con- 
scious mind/' This turn of the doubting physician to a belief that 
such a faculty is the. soul, or proof of it, shows some excuse in other 
and less acute minds for making the same error. 

We all possess a sub-conscious mind. Of this there 
is no doubt. What it is, and its uses, as well as its possibilities, may 
be properly treated of in a separate volume, and such a book will 
soon appear as the next higher work in Ealston- Natural College. 
If you are interested in pursuing such studies, we should be pleased 
to have letters from you to that effect. It is true that the next 
great field of scientific discovery is in this line of investigation. 
"What may be proved we do not know. For the present it is ac- 
knowledged that all persons possess a sub-conscious mind, but 
which does not prove spirit life. 

1 42* \ 

Animals possess the lowest stratum of the sub-con- 
scious faculty. 

This is the 428th Ralston Principle. The question has often 
been asked, Do animals have souls? The proof of the possession 
of a sub-conscious mind in human beings has been advanced as 
conclusive evidence of the fact that man is immortal. The logic 
is this: The inner mind can be established by overwhelming proof. 
This is true. The inner mind, known as the sub-conscious faculty, 
is able to perceive deeds, things and thoughts that are not within 
the range of the natural senses, so-called. This is true. Then 
they say, the inner mind is the soul; or it is proof of the soul; or 
it is proof of immortality, or of any tiling else that may be claimed. 
This is not true, nor has it any connection with the former facts. 

Animals possess the same proving powers that 
human beings are charged with in this connection. False con- 



120 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

elusions are as possible in the one case as in the other. Xothing 
is proved that is not well proved. There could be no wider jump 
between two ends of a journey with a chasm of nothingness be- 
tween, than is found in the reasoning which declares that sub- 
consciousness is in any way connected with the existence of the 
soul. As well might one reason that, because snow is white, the 
earth on which it falls is also white because of its presence; or, be- 
cause the dog howled at the death of a child he could not see, 
therefore the spirits told him all about it. 

It is a matter of wonderment that a person hypnotized 
is able to see beyond the sense of sight, or hear what the ears can- 
not understand. When such a person, having no use of the facul- 
ties in an ordinary way, and being in an inferior state of helpless- 
ness, is able to detect the location of some hidden object, to receive 
messages from an opposite continent, or catch thoughts from the 
minds of those who are now forgotten and thus learn secrets of the 
long buried dead, we feel at first that there must be spirit com- 
munication. Then comes the impulse to ask the supposed spirit 
who and what it is, and the answer is promptly made that it is the 
disembodied soul of some stranger and is talking from hell; or a 
series of discordant and all-round contradictory responses is tend- 
ered us, from which we select such as our hopes attract and offer 
them as proofs. The only excuse for this weakness of the mind 
in assuming that the part answers of such vagaries are fully true, 
or that any answer of the kind could be true, or that the supposed 
personality is a fact, is in the alarm that is at first created. We 
stop thinking and go to believing. 

A gentleman of high education came out of a line of 
experiments in such things and told his friends that the sub-con- 
scious faculty was surely the soul, that its testimony established 
forever the fact of spirit life, for it talked with persons once living, 
now dead, who related experiences that could be known to no one 
else. "To no one else? How, then, could the truth of the rela- 
tion be ascertained?" "I mean to no one else anions us. or anions 
those present." "But were these experiences known to some liv- 
ing beings at the time they were told by the sub-conscious mind?'' 
"Yes, I suppose they were." "Then, as such a mind may travel 
anywhere and know any thought, do you not see that it had oppor- 
tunity enough to catch all its story from the living This again 
unsettled him. 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 121 

1 But another gentleman of education would not yield. 

He persisted obstinately, not reasonably, in his claim that the sub- 
conscious mind of itself was proof of the soul and of the spirit life. 
One evening, just before dusk, he was driving along a country road 
which was but little traveled. In a rather gloomy stretch of woods, 
a bridge surrounded by tangle-bush and rank weeds caused the 
horse to slacken his speed, come down to a slow trot, then a 
walk, and finally to stop two rods in front of the ravine which was 
spanned by the old wooden structure. The proceeding was quite 
out of the ordinary. The man with difficulty turned about and 
drove back for a mile, then resumed his course to the same place. 

On approaching the bridge a second time, the horse 
repeated his actions. The man was convinced that something was 
wrong; the time of day was uninviting; a dread not often known 
to him seized his mind; he needed company, and turned back again 
for the purpose of securing assistance in whatever discovery he 
might make. Two men were found; and, with lanterns, they ap- 
proached the bridge; their horses being driven in advance. The 
first crossed the bridge willingly; the second refused to continue a 
rapid gait, but slowed down to a walk and stopped when on the 
bridge, then went ahead on being urged. His driver said it was 
strange. The man who had gone back for these two companions 
could not induce his horse to even go to the bridge, and his frantic 
refusals were certainly evidence of genuine fear. 

Descending the small ravine they examined the ground 
and found evidence of a fresh disturbance there. There was not a 
trace of odor or sign of blood; and the human body that was after- 
ward discovered had been buried so deep that the horse could not 
have been effected by the sense of smell. It is true of such ani- 
mals that they are not influenced by the odor of flesh. Something 
of the horror of murder had suggested itself. This is not proof of 
the sub-conscious faculty in the horse; it is a link in the chain, per- 
haps. One of the other two horses may have possessed the faculty 
in less acute form. Much must be reserved for the explanation 
that comes from the keenness of the nose in animal life. A dog 
carrying a trail would lose it under some circumstances, as where 
several feet of soil had been heaped upon the body; though this 
ought not to be true of the species. J 

After the foregoing experience the man became inter- "* 
ested in the problem of sub-consciousness in the brute creation; 



122 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

admitting, however, that the single case proved nothing definitely. 
He collected evidence from all possible sources, mostly from hear- 
say and newspaper talk, which proved unreliable. One case he in- 
vestigated very thoroughly, and afterwards found a number some- 
what like it. An old woman lay dying in a front room of a long 
low house in the suburbs of a town. There were three rooms in 
succession. It was late in the afternoon. A strange cat was seen 
coming into the yard: and was twice driven off. A neighbor across 
the way, who knew neither the cat nor the circumstances of its 
arrival at this peculiar time, watched its manoeuvres. It seemed to 
be attracted to a window at the side of the front room, where the 
patient lay. 

It was cold weather and the sash was down, the shade 
drawn and the blinds closed. At the moment when the spirit de- 
parted, when the heart ceased and the breath passed out, the cat 
gave a long howl and fell upon the ground beneath the window. 
The time within and that without were kept accurately and after- 
wards compared. Indeed the neighbor, who was superstitious, went 
at once to the house and made inquiry if the woman were dead. 
He then drove the cat away for good, as he thought. During the 
evening the body was removed to the second room. At four o'clock 
in the morning everybody about was disturbed by the howling 
the cat at the window of the second room and but a few f< m 

where the body lay. It appeared that the woman had come from 
her country home to die in the house of a relative, and that the car 
was her pet companion. The strangest part is that the animal had 
remained in the country until the day of the death, and had started 
to town without guide and at a pace that must have been rapid, 
considering the distance. The circumstances were fully pn 
and no room was left for doubt. Here the sub-conscious facull 
seemed to have controlled the cat; giving her the direction to tak . 
and leading her to the house, to the room and to the very window. 

The cat, more than any other animal, has been charged 
with the possession of this clairvoyant power: and there seems some 
reason for believing that its brain is perhaps more sensitive in such 
regard; but it is not by any means alone. The so-called acuteness 
of the sense of smell and of hearing may be seen to have exceptions 
where the only remaining explanation is in the plea of sub-con- 
sciousness. Xo matter how tired some animals may be. they are 
never overtaken by surprise. The sleeping cat is awake to danger, 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 123 

but not to ordinary noise. Cats and dogs, as well as other animals, 
will allow some children to play about them, making a din by the 
hour, and sleep through it all; while the same animals will not 
allow any real danger to take them by surprise. 

This is not true of all, for some possess the sub-conscious 
faculty in acuteness, while others are slow to exhibit its action. 
This is so with human beings, as well. The dog, tired by a day's 
chase, will sleep at night with one eye open, as the saying is; and 
such a dog is more likely to defend his master's home against the 
burglar than would one that leads a lazy life. So with persons 
who live vigorously and actively; their senses are all more acute 
than idlers and loungers. The dark ages witnessed many strange 
superstitions associated with the cat, some of which were un- 
doubtedly founded upon its sub-conscious ability; and from the 
meagre foundation of truth there arose the idea that the cat had a 
soul, or a devil, or was the agent of some demon. In the far-away 
countries this animal is worshipped as a deity among some peoples, 
and there are legends, or part history, concerning its sagacity and 
supposed superhuman powers. Some of the images of idolatry are 
those of cats. This animal was very costly in mediaeval centuries, 
despite the fact that witches made it a companion in evil, if we are 
to believe some of the serious writings of those ages. What truth 
there is in the claims of other times we do not pretend to say; but 
there is hardly a localnry where some proof is not now obtainable 
of the strange powers invested in this particular animal. 

We are indebted to private investigators for the fol- 
lowing incidents. Some of them we have abundant, others 
knowledge of; and the parties who carried on the inquiries are fully 
credited in many sources. It will be seen that various kinds of 
lower life are possibly endowed with the faculty in question. A 
woman, whose sleeping-room opened into a hall-room where she 
kept her pet canary, was awakened at night, at the time when pet 
canaries are supposed to have their peepers tightly glued together, 
by the discordant notes of the bird. The sound was so unusual, 
that she arose and summoned her two grown sons, who made an 
examination of the house, after listening for a few moments, and 
hearing nothing. They found everything as usual, and retired; 
giving their mother a little pleasantr}^ for waking them up. In 
less than half an hour, the bird renewed its appeals. The sons had 
spent the time in talking, while trying to get to sleep. They knew 



124 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

their mother would be alarmed, so dressed again and came to her. 
She was at the window, watching the actions of two men who were 
standing on the opposite side of the road. Her room was dark; 
the night was dark; and these forms were scarcely discernible. 
Presently, the forms crossed and entered a side-gate that took them 
to the rear of the house. It was decided to wait until they entered, 
■as the building was provided with a call signal to a messenger office 
which would bring the police. All silence was preserved. Soon the 
heavy tread of steps could be faintly heard on the floors below. 
The call was rung in; officers came; and two dangerous burglars 
were captured. They had robbed various houses in the city, and 
had eluded the law. 

The strange part is this: Why did the bird aw: 
when the burglars were not within the house or the yard, and not 
-even on that side of the street? The peculiar warning became 
known, and it was found that at the time the bird first called, the 
men were at another house, or just leaving it, and that was more 
than a mile away. They themselves said they approached the house 
from the farther side of the street, and heard what they supposed 
was the cry of a bird, which caused them to hesitate before cross- 
ing over. The bird became silent when it saw that its mistr 38 
was up, looking after the house. This case is no more mysterious 
than that of the horse at the bridge, or the cat and the corpse; but 
it is of a class that cannot be explained by the usual methods of 
acute senses. If any sense is so superfine as to hear, smell or see 
the things which were undoubtedly perceived, then that faculty 
must of itself be credited as almost of the sub-conscious order. A' 
are inclined to believe that the ordinary senses are quickened by 
this powerful faculty. The hounds that pursue trails depend pri- 
marily upon the organ of smell, no doubt; but the keenness is so 
extraordinary that there must be a greater sense back of it. 

In the class of instances to which we bave referred-; the 
following is almost as mysterious as the puzzling experiences of 
human beings who have shown the remarkable faculty of clairvoy- 
ance. A man held a receipt for the payment of a morl 
whereby, after years of toil and denial, he had released his home 
from the black shadows of debt. He had paid the cash, but did 
not know that there should be a record made in the registry of 
deeds. Neglecting this, and the man to whom he made payment 
having died, he could not prove the settlement: so confronted the 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 125 

spectre of debt once more, and at a time of life when he was ill- 
prepared to meet and down it. 

The receipt had been carefully laid away, but in shift- 
ing about it had become misplaced. After an exhaustive search, 
he concluded that it had been stolen. His wife and daughter be- 
moaned the ill-fate, day after day weeping themselves sick. Against 
the theory of probable payment, the fact that the man had been 
at one time involved in questionable transactions which were never 
proved one way or the other, operated to convince the public that 
he was pretending to have made payment of the mortgage, when in 
reality he sought to take advantage of the payee's death. No one 
had been present at the time, and he had never shown the receipt 
even to his wife. Therefore, when a suit was brought to foreclose 
the mortgage and to sell the property, it seemed certain that he 
would be defeated. 

A few days before the suit was to come to trial, the wife, 
daughter and husband talked the matter over in all its aspects and 
seemed in despair. A dog that had come to them a month before 
this time, and many months after the receipt was given, lounged 
around the room constantly, taking a position near his newly- 
elected master. He whined and fretted a great deal, showing an 
increasing disposition to become annoying. The man resented this 
intrusion, especially as the dog was a stranger until within a short 
time; yet he had grown to like and considered him a finely bred 
animal, too good to be straying. The daughter thought him sick. 
The mother said, "He is more than an ordinary dog. See what a 
line shape of the head he has. There is something he knows." 
They laughed at the idea; and, while they did so, the woman re- 
solved to investigate for herself. 

Twice the dog had arisen to go to the door. Kow the 
wife followed him, and turned the knob. The animal gave a yelp 
of delight, and led the way out. Down stairs to the cellar, and back 
to an old box laden with cobwebs around a mass of refuse, consisting 
of papers and general trash, they went; all the while the animal 
cavorting like one possessed. The dirt was too thick to be handled, 
and there was too much of it for her to take out; so she returned 
to the room above, and told the circumstances to her husband. He 
muttered something uncomplimentary, and declined to make a 
show of himself for the sake of a superstitious idea. He permitted 
his wife and daughter to go to the cellar unattended and attempt 



126 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

the overhauling of the trash. When he saw their determination, 
he relented, and proceeded to aid them. The receipt was found: it 
was in the shape of a release of the mortgage, and was intended for 
record. The next day he carried it to the registry. The executor 
of the estate of the mortgagee admitted the genuineness of the 
paper, and the suit was dismissed. It was probable that the paper 
had blown off the desk and fallen into the waste paper basket, for 
there were three unanswered letters in the same part of the box, 
showing that they might have been emptied from the basket with 
the receipt. 

The difficulty of this case is in the fact that the dog was 
owned by the mortgagee until his death, but had been staying with 
the executor until about four weeks before the discovery of the lost 
paper. He Avas then taken home and compelled to live at the 
executor's for a few weeks by being chained. At the end of i 
time, seeming to be at home, he was released, and went directly 
the home of the mortgagor, whose lost receipt he had aided in find- 
ing. When asked why the dog should have gone to this house at 
all, the executor replied that he had frequently Been the man in 
company with the mortgagee, and that a slight attachment had 
sprung up between them; then, when the master died, it was easy 
for the dog to select a new one whom he liked better than the 
executor. 

This explanation standing alone might be sufficient ; in 
fact it would satisfy the critical analyist of the whole affair, for it 
is scientific, and does not depend upon occultism for it- solution. 
Such a course of reasoning is necessary in the absence of clear pr< 
to the contrary. What about the fact that the dog did 1 
the new master until about four weeks before the trial was di 
and then only when a great stir of interest had arisen? What 
the fact that he hung around the little family when they were mi s1 
intently discussing the lost receipt? Admitting that he was present 
when the money was paid, that he saw the paper, that lie even 
smelled it, and that he had every chance of "knowing it" that would 
be necessary for following a trail; how can it be believed that the 
sense of smell could have carried him to an unknown corner of the 
cellar in a house he was not familiar with, and could have prompted 
him to unearth the secret hiding place of the valued document? 

The ingenuity of explanation has been exhausted upon 
this problem. In the first place, they say that the dog came to the 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 127 

house because; he was ill-treated; and, knowing the mortgagor as 
one who had called many times upon his old master, he probably 
took a liking to him, and followed him home one day. Then, wit- 
nessing the unusual grief of the family, his sympathetic instinct 
manifested itself, as is a well-known habit in the canine nature. 
Thinking the trouble was due to something that might be .traced 
by that one faculty which, in the dog, overrides all others, he had 
taken a trail of scent to the box where refuse matter was frequently 
carried, although none had been taken there for a week or more. 
It might not have been the particular document that the dog was 
tracking; no one knows what was operating in his eager brain. It 
may have been a fitful flight of his mind, so to speak, that aroused 
his interest in the box, the contents of which had enough variety 
to meet almost any wish he might have conjured up. One acute ex- 
plainer thinks there was a bone in the box; that the dog smelled it 
one day when investigating the cellar, and that he set his mind 
upon it very suddenly. 

Against some phases of these explanations, is the 
fact which has been testified to by the three members of the family, 
that when the box had been nearly emptied of its contents the dog 
himself took out the receipt with his teeth, and went into canine 
hysterics; which, it being true that he was not of the feminine 
gender, was all the more unaccountable. Without this fact, there 
is some evidence of the sub-conscious faculty present in the animal; 
with the fact, there seems to be no doubt of it; yet the coloring of 
the circumstances may not be known to us, or even remembered by 
the family. It may be true that there was some exclamation which 
attracted attention to the package; but the man says he did not 
know and did not believe that the receipt was there until he saw 
it in the teeth of the dog. "\ 

One more case of those that are accredited may be 
examined in this connection. This incident, or piece of human 
history, is certainly true in all its details, from the least to the 
greatest. It was made the theme of a long published account in the 
authors writings of nearly thirty years ago, and, later on, in one 
of his private dramatizations. A young lady, once of a rich family, 
became suddenly poor and orphaned of both parents. Being familiar 
with book-keeping, she accepted a position in a small town many 
miles away from her home, and amid people who knew nothing of 
her. She was not nineteen. Her beautv attracted the attention of 



128 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

the inevitable gossips and led to the continuous inquiry as to who 
she was, and why a girl so well dressed and so accomplished should 
seek employment. To the lady at whose house she boarded she was 
compelled to make this statement: "I was the only child of wealthy 
parents. My father died, and my mother found the estate so much 
involved in debt that, what was supposed to be riches, flew away. 
This preyed upon her mind, and she soon followed father to the 
grave. I had friends without limit, but I could not accept their 
charity. The men who had sought my hand in marriage were not 
to my taste, and when it was known that I was alone and poor they 
disappeared. I saw the world as sordid, cold and cruel. I resolved 
to seek my living in a new locality, and never let my old acquaint- 
ances know where I was. The advertisement for a book-keeper 
was read, and answered by my taking the train at once to this place. 
I liked the idea of living near the country, and came here. I proved 
to my employer that I could keep books fairly well. He accepted 
me. He does not know this part of my history. I wish no one to 
know it." She convinced the woman of her honesty, and they be- 
came fast friends through the trouble that followed. This much, 
it seems should be known, so that the events that followed may be 
better understood. 

At the desk in her office there was no window ; the light 
coming from the ofiice of her employer, where a large window v 
kept open to admit air and light in the summer. She began work 
at a salary of ten dollars per week, the amount stipulated in the 
advertisement. She had many things to learn, and much study v 
required before she really earned so much; but her employer v 
comparatively young, rich, easy in disposition, handsome, and dis- 
posed to teach her; so that, at the end of three months, she was in 
reality a satisfactory book-keeper. He raised her salary to fifteen 
dollars per week. She felt the keen interest in her welfare that 1 - 
tones conveyed, and knew the bent of his heart. This caused her 
to be more distant in her demeanor. At the end of another thr 
months he raised her salary to twenty dollars per week. Then she 
knew he was in love. Try how he might, he could not approach 
her on the subject. In her presence his hand trembled, and the 
pen fell to the floor. 

Finding herself likely to receive another increase of 
salary, she confided the affair to her good lady friend, who ac- 
quiesced in all the girl had done, and then stated that the young 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 129 

man had also made a confidant of her, confessing a love that she 
believed to be genuine. In the course of the next six months, and 
while another summer was speeding around, the girl's heart was 
finally won. In less than a week after an engagement was talked 
of, and before the ring was selected, she was accused of being a 
thief. One noon a ten-dollar bill was taken from his desk. The 
next noon he lost a twenty-dollar bill. On the third noon, a five- 
dollar bill, placed there purposely while the office was watched, was 
also taken. She had been suspected by the foreman. It was her 
wont to reach the office promptly at one, an hour before the em- 
ployer returned; but she was never known to enter his office, 
although there was access from hers. He locked his door, she 
locked hers, and the desk was left open, as there was no approach 
to it from without, as there were iron bars across the window and 
it was on the second floor. 

When the foreman reported to the employer the fact 
that the girl was the guilty party, a trap was set for the fourth day, 
and both men. lay in waiting. At one o'clock the young lady re- 
turned, entered her office by unlocking the door, went to her desk, 
took a part of her work into the private office, remained there for 
a while, and returned to her own, where the men found her. They 
unlocked the door of the adjoining office, and there saw that the 
money had been again taken. The heart of the man recoiled within 
him, his love flew to despair, and he addressed the young woman 
alone behind locked doors. He asked her if she had seen the 
money. She said no, she had seen none whatever on the desk. 
Why did she make use of the office? Because it was lighter and 
more airy than hers, and she went in there every clay during the 
time that he was absent. He accused her flatly of the theft, called 
her an adventuress, said she concealed her former history, even the 
place of her residence, and gave vent to his feelings in allegations 
that made a future conciliation very difficult, on account of the 
things to be retraced. 

Through this ordeal she was cool from the excess of 
her suffering. She offered to pay him the money; he did not care 
for the money; it was the abhorrence of having come so near to 
marrying an adventuress and a thief; — words that burned clear into 
his soul. She then asked him to remain with her, and to have 
others remain also, then send for a half dozen honest women to 
search her; for, if she had taken the money, she had it. He declared 



130 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

that she had probably swallowed it since he entered. Then she 
requested the aid of an emetic. Her coolness exasperated him. She 
rang for the foreman, and declared her intention to stay in that 
room until honest women had searched her. This she demanded, 
saying: "If you do not have me searched I will see that justice is 
done both of us. I 'have not the money. Your accusation is a 
dangerous one." Then three women were called in; the men went 
out, and they searched her, finding nothing. She retired to her 
home with her good lady friend, and broke down utterly. The 
office was ransacked thoroughly, and no money found. The theory 
of swallowing it was adopted; but the emetic idea escaped their 
attention. 

The next day the employer, whose love was real, fell 
into brain fever, wherein he lingered for weeks. He awoke to find 
that the authorities -had taken criminal proceedings against the 
girl, on the theory that she was an adventuress, and the grand jury 
at the county seat, some miles away, had indicted her. While con- 
valescent, a robin flew into his room, from which ill-omen his death 
was presaged; but the robin came on another mission. This I 
played about the window, flying in and out day after day. until he 
received the attention which he demanded. He took a course from 
the sick man's house to a tree near the office window where the d< sk 
had stood from which the money had been taken. This the robin 
circled in fantastic movements, but failed to secure the aid which 
he sought. The man was soon able to be out, and attemp 
the proceedings quashed; but the girl objected. She ordered 
counsel to insist on a trial, as she claimed to be able to prove I 
innocence. 

The employer discharged his foreman, the only wit- 
ness who knew the facts, excepting himself. The foreman went 
into another State, beyond the reach o( a subpoena. e man then 

sought in every way to express his love for the girl, telling Iter that 
his sickness was proof of the overwhelming grief the incident h 
caused him, and said that if he were her husband the legal author- 
ities could not compel him to testify against her. She refused, but 
admitted her "Teat love for him. and freely forgave him for 
horrible accusations. One day. at the office, the robin tapped at 
the window almost loud enough to break the glass. Be seemed 
demand attention. On arousing a little interest, he wheeled " i 
flight to the same old tree, and tore away a part of the nest, in 



REALM OF HYPNOTISM 131 

doing which he revealed the edge of a bill. In a few minutes a 
deserted nest was found, containing the stolen money. It was 
interwoven in the grass and sticks with a skill that no human in- 
genuity could equal. The visit to the house of the young woman, 
with the nest as a confessant, was like the triumphal march of 
justice clothed in angelic splendor. 

Some questions arise at this juncture. The nest was not 
that of the robin, and had been deserted. The robin's nest was 
found elsewhere. The fact that the bird went from the house of 
the sick man to his office has been explained on the theory that the 
bird had there been fed by him, and knew him well at both places, 
The wheeling about the tree was regarded as imaginary, or as evi- 
dence of an affection which some free birds show at times, though 
rarely, for persons who have fed them or caressed them. The 
pulling up of the nest and the money is explained as a careless or 
playful act of the bird, or, perhaps, as an effort to get ready-made 
material for his own nest. These solutions do not solve altogether. 
Why did the robin tap upon the window, and then go directly to 
the nest and expose the hidden bill? Some one answers by saying 
that he went there and hung around as though he desired to express 
his gratitude for the return of the employer to his office; and during 
his demonstration he went to the nest in plav or exuberance. The 
very act of tearing at the straw in it would of course loosen the 
money. This does not explain the conduct of the bird satisfactorily. 

One other case is important as showing the sub-con- 
scious faculty of the lower species. On certain nights a family that 
had taken possession of an old house under rental, found them- 
selves annoyed by the groanings of a sick person, the sounds being 
most distressing. Every means was adopted to catch the individual 
who might be guilty, but the agony always ceased when one was 
within fifty feet of it. We will not take the space to describe here 
the arrangement of the grounds or the difficulties that attended in- 
vestigation. An old raven, that belonged to a neighbor, was accused 
when the theory of a human cause was abandoned. The bird, how- 
ever, protested against the accusation as though he understood it, 
and it was he who lay in wait night after night, going closer and 
closer, until he caught the culprit. He screeched vigorously, 
snatched the hat from his head, and bore it in triumph to the 
frightened family. They apprehended the young man, and obtained 
his confession. The actions of the raven at the time of the capture 



132 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

were less wonderful than his keenness in surmising the intentions 
or divining the thoughts of his would-be maligners at the earlier 
time, when the suggestion was made that he was the pretended 
sufferer. We frankly propose to state both sides of the case, in each 
instance cited, and in this affair the explanation has been made 
that the raven was away from home at the hours when the groaning 
occurred, which led to his being suspected: but that, at such times, 
he may have been annoyed by the unusual sounds and was on the 
lookout for the guilty person. 

The probability is a very strong one that animals pos- 
sess the sub-conscious faculty, though in its lowest stratum. Be- 
fore this volume is closed we hope to be able to present the higher 
strata of the same faculty. In the mud and blackness of the animal 
realm of sub-consciousness, in the witchery of evil-doers, in the 
ravings of those half-disordered minds that have shown gleam? of 
cunning and clairvoyant keenness that have astonished observers, 
we see the inner sense at work, and shrink from its touch. 



"What immortal hand or ere 
Framed thy fearful symmetry ? 
In what distant deeps or skies 
Burned that fire within thine e: 
On what wings dared he aspire ? 
What the hand dared sei;e the fire ? 
And what shoulder, and what art. 
Could twist the sinews of thy heart ? 
When thy heart began to beat. 
What dread hand formed thy dread feet ? 
What the hammer, what the chain, 
Knit thy strength and forged thy brain ? 
What the anvil? What dread grasp 
Dared thy deadly terrors elasp ? 
When the stars threw down their spears, 
And watered heaven with their tears, 
Did He smile His work to see ? 
Did He who made the lamb make tb< 



REALM THREE 




"w/HEN all the sister planets have decayed; 
™ When rapt In fire the realms of ether glow, 
And Heaven's last thunder shakes the world below; 
Thou, undismayed, shalt o'zv the ruins smile, 
And light thy torch at Nature's funeral pile ! " 




Tl>e E^babe of Hell 



IN THE 



BLACK SHADOWS OE EXISTENCE. 



'f^UT when the III stood clear and plain, 
And naked Wrong was bold to brave, 
And naught was left but bitter Hate— 
We paid them in the coin they gave. 
We strode as stalks a lion forth 
At dawn, a lion wrathful-eyed; 
Blows rained we, dealing shame o\\ shame 
And humbling pomp and quelling pride. 
Too kind a man may be with fools, 
And nerve them but to flount him more; 
And Mischief oft may bring thee peace, 
When Mildness works not Eolly's cure." 

(133) 



"r\ LORD! mcthoughf, what pain it was to drown 

What dreadful noise of water in mine ears'. 
What sights of ugly death within mine eyes! 
Hethought I saw a thousand fearful wrecks; 
A thousand men, that fishes gnawed upon; 
Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl, 
Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels, 
AH scattered in the bottom of the sea : 
Some lay in dead men's skulls; and In those holes 
Where eyes did once inhabit, there were crept 
(As 'twere in scorn of eyes) reflecting gems, 
That wooed the slimy bottom or the deep, 
And mocked the dead bones that lay scattered bu. 
My dream was lengthened after life ; 
O, then began the tempest to my soul! 
i passed, mcthoughf, the melancholy flood, 
With that grim ferryman which poets write of, 
Unto the kingdom of perpeutal night. 
With that, mcthoughf, a legion of foul fiends 
Environed me, and howled in mine ears 
Such hideous cries, that with the ycn\ noise, 
I trembling waked, and, for a season after, 
Could not believe but that I was in hell ; 
Such terrible impression made my dream! 



U34) 



ll)e Esbate o< Hell 




""""THE: earth is dreaming hack her youth; 
Hell never dreams, for woe is truth; 
Rnd Heaven is dreaming o'er her prime, 
Long ere the morning stars of time." 




THE magnetism we teach is of the kind that conquers ; 
and we propose to show, before this book is ended, that there 
is but one kind that never fails to conquer; but one kind 
that wins at all times, in all places, under all circumstances, 
and achieves a total victory, complete in every particular. Other 
methods may extol the advantages which a stronger personality is 
able to wrest from a weaker, but such victories are cowardly. The 
grandest man is he who is master of his peers. 

The word hell means anything you choose^to make it. 
In the lowest planes of barbarism it indicates a country somewhere 
beneath the surface of the earth, where occupations and penalties 
are suited, not to the demerits of the wrong-doers, but to the fancies 
of the inventors of the place itself; always reflecting the mental 
characteristics of the age and people from which they emanate. 
Thus the idea of hell changes continually; it broadens its fancy, and 
loses its sting as civilization makes progress. If there were no 
penal codes there would be no realm of- punishment. 

(135) 



136 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

The human heart is so constituted that the more re- 
fined and sensitive it becomes, the more it suffers. Life is full of 
rough places: thorns abound on every side; and that person is most 
in harmony with nature who is rough and thorny, for he has less 
to pain him. It is the tender hand that is pricked. A gang of 
laborers are hounded and abused by the man in charge of them, 
but they pay no heed to the oaths; yet a sensitive fellow pines and 
pales at the mere intimation that he is not active enough for his 
age. The actresses whose character creations on the stage are ideals 
of life are scolded at rehearsals, until the}' have a right to believe 
themselves the trashiest of human beings; yet woman shrinks from 
the least of insinuations in a more sensitive sphere. Miss W. sa] - 
of herself: "I was told by a gentleman acquaintance that I ought 
to improve my mind by reading the best and loftiest works of 
literature. I asked him if he thought my brain deficient, and he 
said he supposed most women were a little below the a , v i of 

their sex's ability; and I became very angry with him. I went on 
the stage, and lost my ultra-sensitiveness in a short time. When 
the manager told me that I was the lowesl specimen of female 
ignorance he ever saw, that I would never know enough I - in 
out of the rain, I agreed with him." These arc facts, illustratii _ 
the two phases of life; one, the hot-house oal are, that quails 're* 
the least chilling breeze; the other, the sturdy 
rough weather. 

Conscience is supposed to regulate the amount 
fering to which a person will be subjected by reason of err - 
sin; but training and habits control conscience. The more - 
you are, the more you will feel the pangs of this attribute lie 

heart. The first breaking away from right-doing is fraught with 

<. %/ CD 

severe anguish; the second amazes you: the third lets in s<mie light 
on the ease with which you can sin and forget. The worst 
crimes may be committed, if there is no fear of punishment. 
human to go as far as the evil bent o( the heart can go without 
running the risk of detection. Take away the continual check on 
wrong-doers, and they will not stop at any limit. 

The blackest ages of history are not many centui 
away. Then all power was robbed from the State and given to the 
Church, whose imperialism concentrated the armies and machinery 
of civil governments under the leadership of one great head; 
blood ran in rivers through the realms. o( the most advanced civil- 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF HELL 137 

ization. There was no conscience. Men felt willing and able to say 
aught they pleased if in power, to the best of their race if out of 
power; and sensitiveness to rebuke of the tongue was absurd in an 
age when the sting of the torch executed the malice of the heart. 
What must have been the feelings of those who could put their 
fellow beings to death, watching them writhe in flames, is under- 
stood only as we study the possibilities of evil action in the present 
age. 

Pulling away more and more every decade from the 
grosser cruelties of a rougher humanity, we find the torturing fear 
of physical harm to be superseded by a much keener suffering of the 
mind and nerves in each new era. They once said it was not hard 
to die, and a body could be killed but once; we now say it is worse 
than a dozen deaths to pass through the anguish of mental fears, 
such as a finer age has brought upon us. So little is death dreaded 
in the barbarous and. semi-barbarous countries, that the most 
horrible of punishments must be invented as deterrents of crime; 
and the agonies are long drawn out, so that the unconsciousness of 
death may not bring sweet peace to the individual. A step lower 
brings us to the savages, who not only laughed at such things, but 
actually courted the opportunity of enduring physical pain in 
excess. The American Indians never flinched a muscle when the 
red-hot irons were held gently against their flesh, and slowly burned 
holes into their bodies. 

Against the defiance of death and torture in the more 
physical races, we find the excruciating horror of a broken mind in 
this era of intelligence. The probability of a life in the asylum is 
haunting a million men and women in our own America to-day; 
for the rush, the hurry, the excitement, the hysteria of living are 
sapping the peace of the brain and tearing open the ever-healing 
wounds of the heart. There is no contentment. . The rich are 
driven to distraction by their cares; the poor are planning to be- 
come rich; the middle classes are the fulcrum on which both ex- 
tremes ply their leverage; the learned hate ignorance, and the 
ignorant have contempt for learning. In each class the war of 
discontent, envy, jealousy and competition turns the hope of peace 
into a red flame of conflict. Fraud is rampant everywhere. The 
desire to cheat some one is responded to by deception from every 
source. There is no peace. The human heart is not an instrument 
of peace. Therefore the man or woman who can call all these 



138 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

warring forces into one compact organization wherein conflict is 
turned to a united energy, will be clothed in sirpreme power. 

-11 ~' " ~ ~ $z 

• 7 | 429 | ■ 1 

The magnetic hell is confusion. 

This is the 429th Ealston Principle. The confusion referred 
to is that of the nervous system that may or may not associate 
itself with the mind. "We all recognize the mind that is clear at one 
time and confused at another. It may be mixed or muddled by 
propositions too deep for it to grasp, and these scatter its magnetism 
if it attempts to deal with them. It is a fact that some of the most 
magnetic of individuals are not of a high order of intelligence; but 
they know when not to enter upon a line of thought that is too 
difficult for their understanding. 

The acquisition of knowledge, the riper state called 
wisdom, and the possession of intelligence are three distinct mat- 
ters, each apart from the other. As a rule, the crowding of the 
mind with facts weaken its real usefulness. A college professor 
may know one hundred thousand things, culled from history, 
science or philosophy, more than the president of a bank or the 
manager of a railroad system; yet, with all his knowledge, he is a 
useless well, valuable to others, but of no avail to himself. A man 
from the city, who knew city ways and methods, looked with pity 
on the blooming face of the country girl who was ignorant of all 
ideas that belonged to metropolitan life; and she, in turn, felt a 
deep sympathy for his ignorance of country ways; yet, while both 
lacked knowledge, they might have been highly magnetic. 

Confusion appears in the mind as a reflex action of the 
nervous condition. No matter how much a person knows, he can- 
not express it, or even think it, if his ideas are scattered by his own 
nervous confusion. Hawthorne was accorded a high rank among 
the brainy men of literature, yet he suffered continually from this 
trouble. Actors have what they call stage fright on first coming 
before an audience in the beginning of the evening's performance, 
and no matter how often they have appeared before, it takes some 
minutes to overcome this condition on each new occasion. History 
is full of instances of such uncontrol in the private and public 



REALM OF TUB ESTATE OF HELL 139 

careers of her favored individuals; they succeed in part, and fail 
in part. 

But the most distressful confusion is that which fills 
the lives of men and women who have no knowledge whatever of 
the method by which they may marshal their vital forces. They 
are one restless torment within the body. They arise in the morn- 
ing in a state of discontent, struggling to adjust themselves to the 
duties of the day. If they belong to the more stupid ranks, those 
that are always on the negative side of life, they may feel no 
responsibility, and by this lack of touch with a progressive existence 
they may be happy in a measure. This they can never be if they 
are on the positive side, for their very activity means unrest. A 
captain without an army has no reason to worry over his martial 
responsibilities; give him soldiers in force, and he is a commander 
only so long as he is able to marshal them in rank and file and con- 
trol their aggressive movements. Let them move along as a motly 
mob, and he suffers the pangs of confusion in his management. 
So it is with every person on the positive side of life who is unable 
to take charge of his forces. 

Such persons are unhappy. To be ignorant and dull, 
stupid, careless, and a negative part in the social relations of 
humanity, perhaps invites more happiness than to realize that life 
is worth living, and to try to live it successfully. "Only the simple 
minds are happy/' says a writer. This is not true. The fact is that 
all who are on the negative side of existence are contented with less 
of the fruitage of living, because their wants are limited and their 
opportunities for enjoyment are less. They are often miserable in 
the little mind they have. Their periods of content and hilarity 
are due to alcohol or other stimulants, and in times of leisure, such 
as Sundays and holidays. Out of their classes come the socialists, 
the mobs and the tossing masses of criminal humanity. 

To be actually happy there must be positive life, and 
this means magnetism; but herein the most acute suffering and 
confusion are found, when the vital energies are not marshalled. 
Existence is like a battlefield; self is the general in command; there 
must be an army or the commander can never realize the pleasure 
of victory; yet, in taking charge of an army, his responsibilities 
begin, and he may live to see his forces torn asunder, scattered, 
demoralized, and all rending his mind into shreds. He is unhappy 
without his army; he may be unhappier with it; 3 T et he can never be 



140 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

happy without the possibilities it may afford him of achieving the 
Grandest victories. 

This condition of confusion is one that should be studied 
and recognized in every life, for it comes to all, and some are never 
free from it. We look for its cure in vain if we seek it outside of 
ourselves. There is no cure except in marshalling the forces within 
ns and leading them on in battle; but it is true that there is less of 
suffering if we abandon the captaincy and drift into the ranks of 
the negative souls that are blown about by the winds of misfortune 
and finally tossed on the rocks of disaster. There are no compensa- 
tions for such existence; even the moments of rest are bubbles of 
deception. We must be going up stream if we would find happiness. 

Confusion of the magnetic forces shows itself in many 
ways. Every bad passion and emotion is touched. You do not feel 
right toward your fellow beings. You are angered at anything, no 
matter how trifling. The success of others weighs down upon you. 
Malice and a desire for revenge live at your elbows, spurring you on 
in your conduct toward enemies. Erratic fires burn in your soul, 
and their flames sear every honorable motive that ever had dwelling 
place in your heart. Policy sometimes holds sway over your tongue 
and over your deeds; but it is hollow, and the gain it brings 18 the 
progeny of greed. You are not happy, but are restlessly hunting 
for some means of acquiring happiness; always finding yourself 
thwarted by circumstances which you charge to an unjust fate. 

Some experiences may prove valuable as example - of 
the workings of this confusion of the magnetic forces. We pi - 
dieted years ago the suicides that would occur among certain prom- 
inent men of this and other nations, particularly of the French. 
When confusion has produced anarchy of the magnetism, sun 
almost a certainty. The French hate to outlive their excitement. 
The self-destruction of Boulanger was as much to be expected 
the natural death of Gladstone and Bismarck. A stormy and 
erratic career is a sea of disorder, involving mind and soul. M si 
persons, who are too strong for suicide, wear out suddenly, like a 
machine running wild, or jump the track and are ditched. 

The feelings are never at peace. An hour or a day of 
quietude within is a symptom of alarm, engendering the fear that 
it is too good to last, and that something is sure to happen to bring 
greater misery. Then, when a trifle occurs to mar the even tenor 
of one's way, the dark cloud of malice arises and overspreads all the 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF HELL 141 

horizon. A woman, in conversation with a friend who had been 
loyal to her for fifteen years, happened to make a remark that was 
a little extravagant, whereupon the friend said, "I hardly think you 
mean that; do yon?" "Well, I like your impertinence. You accuse 
me of deliberate falsehood." "I did not intend to do so, but what 
you say is not true, and yon know." "If you will find the door, you 
may do so," exclaimed the woman in her own house, and her guest 
departed. In the evening this quick-tempered woman told her 
husband the circumstances, and added, "I do not know why I spoke 
so hastily; but I have done it, and we are both too proud to ever 
speak again." And it is true that, although a mutual friend tried 
to heal the breach, they have always remained enemies. When the 
thought of the old friendship comes np, the spell of malice fights 
with it until it is downed, and there is less hope than ever of peace. 

Magnetism is greatest and most powerful in the 
colder climes. The heat of the warmer zones tends to make a 
spirited person altogether too unreasonable to be classed as a higher 
example of civilization. This is seen in the South, where the feuds 
indicate that the magnetic vitalities run wild. Most of these diffi- 
culties have originated between the wives of the contestants, and 
over the slightest of causes. In one case the families were neigh- 
bors, and a pet dog would emanate from the home of Mrs. A. to 
the flower-beds of Mrs. B., until the latter sent a polite request by 
her boy, asking that the trips of the canine cease altogether. This 
was regarded as an insult, though any reasonable mind would have 
thought it perfectly proper and neighborly. 

In the mind and soul of Mrs. A., the stormy unrest of 
hell began. She brooded over the note, over the dog, over the 
flower-beds, and over everything, until confusion reigned supreme 
in her nervous system. Herself counted a magnetic woman, she 
gave an exhibition of an army disorganized, running pell-mell upon 
an enemy with eyes shut. Her only thought was revenge for the 
writing of that note. Its language was polite, even affectionate, 
and the grievance was not imaginary; but she could not forgive 
the sending of it, as they had always been the best of friends. She 
could not see that it was her duty to obey the request. She could 
not appreciate the fact that a gentle endurance of a real offence, in 
this world of cross-interests, is far better than enmity and blood- 
shed. "I do not know what actuated me to do this," she afterward 
said, in the usual groping about for an excuse, "but I believe it was 



142 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

the devil himself." If this is so, there must be many devils about; 
for her conduct was in line with that of millions of others who are 
unable to control their impulses. 

The husbands took up the matter ; then they became 
enemies; then the grown-up sons entered into it, and thus the war 
of the families began. One night the son of A. met 13., and crossed 
the street apparently to avoid him. B. had an errand at the store 
on the other side, but lingered behind, so as to keep out of the 
young man's way. The latter reasoned as most persons do, and v. - 
quite sure that he was being followed; indeed, he felt so certain of 
it, that he went home and told hi- father. Mr. A. then came out, 
and demanded of B. why lie was hounding hi- -on. 1',. declared that 
he had not intended to do so; that lie took his usual course hoi: . 
and proposed to attend to his business if other persons would attend 
to theirs. To this A. declared bis disbelief, and the lie was pi - 
Then came threats. 

After the foregoing preamble to the feud, it was nee - 
sary that each should arm himself. The mere vis >f the <>t: 
was the signal for putting the hand t<» the poc - they 

came upon each other quite unexpectedly one evening, they dn 
and fired. One died instantly, the other in a few hours. In a year 
more one of the sons killed the other; a cousin killed the surviv 
and the relatives and friends of each side joined forces, until twenty 
six were slain. In some of the Southern feuds 
slighter, and the fatalities greater. Then is no prevenl 
slaughter; for, once the restless heart is aroused, it hi 
till death ends its owner's life. The reasoning faculties never act in 
such dramas. 

Women are no more subject to the confusion of their 
magnetic forces than are men. They may be n od 

revengeful, for they act by intuition or instinct; y u are 

frequently given to these disorders a- women. Two i 
whose lines of trade were conflicting, met and entered upon an 
altercation that had no sensible cause: yet they became lifelo 
enemies, and were made miserable by their i 3. One man 

takes affront at some simple grievance, and he is no long 
to himself, for he cannot harbor malice without losing his true 
value. We recall the case of a young lawyer, who met 1. - d ath 
under the following circumstances: lie held a claim for collection 
against a man more than a thousand miles away, and. wrote hie. 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF HELL 143 

letter demanding immediate payment. The man replied that he 
would pay it when he was able, and said that he could not be forced 
to pay by any "young snipe." Here was the beginning. 

The lawyer wrote back a letter in the same vein, add- 
ing the words, "I do not propose to be insulted by a cur." The 
man was deeply offended, although he had begun the malicious part 
of the correspondence. He wrote an intemperate letter, containing 
a score of opprobrious adjectives, some of them too low to repeat. 
The lawyer then replied in like vein. On receiving the letter, the 
man demanded a retraction at once, or he would come on and 
thrash the lawyer. The latter, who had not begun the attack, 
showed that he was not frightened, for he followed up the mud- 
throwing by another abusive letter. The recipient came on and 
killed him on sight. He was hung for it. Both men were built of 
intelligent stuff, and would have been accounted magnetic were it 
not for the fact that their vital forces were scattered and wild, 
lacking leadership. 

A large majority of men, on receiving the slightest provo- 
cation, will answer in kind, paying interest in so doing. Nothing 
but policy, the desire of gain, or the fear of punishment, holds most 
persons back. You may do a friend a favor, and receive from him 
a scathing rebuke in case he fails to get another favor from you. 
The foulest of letters have been written to benefactors who limit 
their kindness. We are referring to the intelligent classes, who are 
supposed to possess magnetism in some positive degree at least* 
They are at enmity with the world and with themselves. Not one 
of them is free from this incoherence of energy. 

Women carry revengeful feelings to the grave. It is 
their nature. They refuse to yield. When two women quarrel, 
both are free from blame, and it has never been discovered that 
either is in duty bound to make overtures to the other for a healing 
of the breech. Sisters and brothers, in a majority of all families, 
have fallings out that are generally of lifelong duration. It seems 
easier for those who are of the same flesh and blood to enter upon 
feuds than for others, and this may be due to the fact that more 
privileges and liberties of remark and action are permitted among 
relatives. 

Lovers quarrels are bitter and generally groundless. 
Magnetic young men and young women lose all control of these 
forces when disturbed by the counter influence of love. They ex- 



144 IXIYERSAL MAGNETISM 

poet all from each other, and, like the perfectly polished marble, 
show to disadvantage with the slightest defect. When they part 
it seems like the opening of a great gulf between two vast hemis- 
pheres. If obstinate, these misguided heads turn away, and point 
their noses of scorn in opposite directions for the rest of their 
natural lives. It can easily be ascertained that nearly -all engage- 
ments are broken, very few of the original mating couples hanging 
together through thick and thin. 

Married life is a hell in many cases. This is due to a 
loss of magnetism, or a confusion of the forces that might be united 
and produce the noblest and the sweetest of peace if both parties 
would have it so. It takes but a word, a bit of neglect, a criticism, 
a rejoinder, or something "light as air," to explode the magazine 
and set off the ignitible energy. Men and women will not strive to 
control themselves. There is satisfaction in showing fight, in the 
pangs of resentment, in the silent tongue and "cutting" of life's 
partner; so they let loose, and the sting sinks in, never to be re- 
moved. The pictured fancy of honeyed bliss is a dream that has 
its awakening in the realism of vinegar and gall. Some marriages 
are filled with happiness, and God blesses them. 

I 430 1 

Irritability destroys magnetism. 

This is the 430th Ealston Principle. You get up in the morn- 
ing; something goes wrong; your garments do not fall into place 
easily; your hosiery clings to the heel; your elbow will not go 
through the arm-hole; the shoe is too tight; a button is off some- 
thing, and you are irritable. Perhaps the vicissitudes of the dress- 
ing period are passed over successfully, but other matters go against 
the grain. It is a common saying that the day is begun wrongs and 
everything will go wrong till night. 

Few indeed are the persons who are free from this 
disease of the nervous system. It is more fearful in its results, 
both in physical and moral effects, than any other malady. It 
grows rapidly by letting it have its way; it is diminished by trying 
to check it; but once it has been allowed free scope, the disposition 
to suppress it is lacking. In its physical injury it involves the 
brain first, and then the mind becomes irresponsible, and the morals 



REALM OF TIN] ESTATE OF WELL 145 

give way sooner or later. Solitude develops it very rapidly. A 
man made the statement that he eould not be alone a half hour 
without uttering oath after oath, which he never dared to do when 
others were within hearing. Another man declared that he had 
the reputation of never using a profane word, yet that, in fact, he 
swore fearfully a hundred times a day. lie knew that he could 
restrain himself, for he never gave way in the presence of others. 

A wife in court testified that her husband was a man of 
mild temper, never having uttered an oath in all his married life; 
and she was much surprised when the attorney for the defence drew 
from him the admission that he "swore to himself when alone." 
Asked how often, he said it was "pretty often if things bothered 
him." A young man, who stood among the leaders of his class in 
the university, and of whom a great future was predicted, soon 
after graduation began to show a deep indentation between his 
brows. This became noticeable to his friends. He was occasionally 
overheard in a rage, and w r as taken to task for it by those who were 
interested in him. He made this statement: "I was once able to 
control my irritability, but I formed the habit of yielding to small 
influences that tended to distract me at times, when I was busy and 
had much to accomplish. This habit grew on me insidiously. It 
soon asserted itself my master." He was induced to see that it 
might be controlled, for he did in fact control it when others were 
about. His books told him that irritability was the first step toward 
insanity, and he saw in his own example that he was slowly and 
surely tending that way. He has been a student of advanced mag- 
netism for several years, and is to-day a perfect master of himself 
and now of others also. 

Irritability is of two kinds : the one is the forerunner of 
insanity, being impelled by that malady, and not easily held in 
check; the other is the outcome of habit, and leads to insanity if 
not suppressed. That which is the symptom is due to mental and 
nervous confusion, and is the natural accompaniment of depleted 
vitality wherein magnetism is lacking or is chaotic. The gentlest 
cares of derangement are those which are on the negative or hyp- 
notic side of life; and the severer eases, as of madness, are found 
among magnetic persons whose energies are not controlled. They 
are like engines running wild, without master hands to direct them. 
The kind of irritability that brings on insanity is always 
the creature of a careless habit. It begins with a sound mind, and 



146 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

possibly a magnetic nature. No person likes to be thwarted. Life 
of all kinds resents interference. The ant, the bee, the fly, the cat, 
the dog, and all species, when not frightened, are quick to snap at 
intrusion, as though to fight them away. On this principle of 
resentment it is natural to "fly up" at anything that goes wrong 
and thus interferes with whatever you are doing. A little thing is 
in the way; with a snatch at it, a curl of the lips, and a knitting of 
the brow, you ejaculate some ill-natured remark that cannot help 
reacting on the heart. 

One of the brightest young men we have ever met lost 
all his magnetism, all his good nature, all his self-control, and, 
finally, all his mind by allowing this habit of irritability to grow on 
him little by little. Another professional gentleman gave way, year 
after year, to this same habit, until he was unfit to remain in his 
office. He said this of himself: "I often meditated on the condi- 
tion in which I found myself, and I often remarked that I could 
stop the habit at any time if I chose; but it got the better of me. 
Now I am going at it in earnest, and I will conquer, for I wish to 
get back the prestige I have lost." He failed again and again, until 
his physician recommended the study of these advanced lessons in 
magnetism, and they alone saved him. 

It may be easily proved that a lack of magnetism is the 
cause of, and is also caused by, irritability. Vitality of body, of 
nerves and of mind will show itself in some degree of positive mag- 
netism, and when the latter has been accumulated it will give rise 
to the former or some one of them. These causes and effects work 
both ways. Let some act of the individual lessen the vitality, and 
the magnetism suffers; then irritability sets in, and the condition 
becomes worse. Many men and women say that they are never irri- 
table until they are all tired out. "I have fidl patience until I am 
weak from weariness; then I have no patience at all; I am cross, 
even ugly, until I get rested. What is the remedy!''* The body and 
mind may become exhausted without depleting the system of its 
magnetism, but this is difficult of attainment. 

If you are irritable you should ascertain the cause of it, or 
what it indicates. First, learn if it is due to an approaching loss 
of your mental powers; and, if so, go to work in earnest to supply 
the needed magnetic vitality which alone can avert the failure of 
this great organ. Then you will save what is more than life; you 
will avoid the wreck of your own existence and the peril of others. 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF HELL 147 

There is not the slightest doubt that this is the only means of cure. 
It not only furnishes the life that is slowly fading out in the mental 
faculties, but its vitality causes a healing, as far as anything can, 
of the nervous structure that is breaking down. The thorough 
study of this volume, and the adoption of its regime, as well as the 
following of its system of training, may be fully relied upon as a 
cure if one's time and full attention are given to the work. Im- 
provement is noted almost from the beginning, after the first read- 
ing of the book, for its influence tends to shape the plan of thought 
and action at once. 

On the other hand, the probability is that your irritability 
is due to carelessly giving up to feelings that are aroused by each 
little annoyance. It is not because your mind is failing that you 
are fretful, but because you lack the will-power and purpose to 
check such feelings. Here, again, there is but one effectual cure, 
and that is found in the realm of peace, in the following pages of 
this volume. We feel sure that you will adopt the plan therein 
furnished, for it is designed to accomplish such a result. Every 
step of the way is stated and explained with the most ample descrip- 
tion, so that nothing can be lost or misunderstood. A change of 
habit is not easy. Great goals are reached only by strong efforts. 
If you neglect this golden opportunity, your career will be down 
hill. If you believe in yourself and in your magnetism, remember 
that some of the sublime wrecks of manhood have come from the 
most magnetic of men and women, who permitted their energies 
to run away with them, like unmanaged horses dashing to the cliff. 



Worry kills. 

This is the 431st Ealston Principle. A minute of worrying 
drives out a mine of magnetism. It collapses the brain, the mental 
force, the vital functions, and all the operations of life. It destroys 
appetite. Many a person has commenced a meal, and stopped eat- 
ing when some bad news arrived. The saliva stagnates, the gastric 
juices of the stomach stop their flow, digestion ceases, and there 
is no taste in the mouth. Don't worry. 



148 



UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 




J^TV^- 



The plainest and most unpoetical of results will come 
out of this habit of borrowing trouble, and it does not take long to 
change the finely balanced mind into a very weak thing when once 
it begins to worry. We all have our ideals in men and women who 
lead the thought of the times; we expect to see them clothed in 
features of royalty, walking in the stature of those who command, 
and towering above commonplace mortals in their habits. Let 
them appear to us with brows knitted, faces pinched, and voices 
whining; how quickly we would cease to admire them. A young 
lady was apparently in love with a tall, nobly built fellow, and saw 
in him the union of all those qualities that most appeal to the 
worshiping nature of woman; yet, when she found that "he fussed 
a great deal/' as she expressed herself to a friend, the charm fell 
away, and only the clay image remained. 

Worrying differs from irritability in all essentials. 
The latter is a nervous unbalancing, due to interfering: or annoying 
circumstances, which cause the person to fret or get in a temper; 
as when, in putting on a boot or shoe, the button falls off or the 
string breaks, and angry words are uttered, or a kick is given, or 
the thing is thrown; presuming, of course, that the individual is 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF HELL 149 

alone, where there is no reason for checking the emotions. Worry 
is anxiety concerning the future, a sort of fear, founded upon 
present conditions, whose outcome is not certain. The strange 
things that people worry about are hardly to be credited were they 
not known as facts. The habit grows on one, and, once it gets a 
firm foothold in the nature, is not easily eradicated. 

A person may be good-natured and yet worry ; it does 
not follow that the latter habit will either invite or accompany 
irritability. Some of the ill-tempered persons never worry, and 
others, who are as gentle as may be desired, are so weak in char- 
acter that they are always softly worrying. The philosopher knows 
the uselessness of wasting his energies over what cannot be helped, 
-and says, mentally, that it will not make any difference a century 
hence, so he will not worry; yet, what his mind so easily solves, 
his nervous system will not always obey. Temperament, health, 
habit, all are involved in the cause. Indeed, it has been claimed 
that ill-health is the only producer of worry, on the theory that 
perfect health is buoyant and sees nothing but the bright side of 
life. This might be true if perfect health could be found; but as 
most persons are in deficient health, and are given to worrying, it 
it not possible to say that one is the promoter of the other. 

The first and most fruitful cause of this habit is the 
anxiety which is felt about the means of living. There have been 
such unpleasant stories circulated about the discomfort of the 
poorhouse that all persons instinctively shrink from the prospect of 
•ending their days at that resort. There is a horror attached to it; 
and rightfully. The very poorest of humanity cherish the romantic 
idea of dying at home in the bosom of their family, lamented as 
the curtain falls, and tenderly put to rest amid the shedding of 
hallowed tears. These humble creatures look forward to work that 
shall bring them fifty cents or more each day, but as no employer is 
bound to keep them steadily engaged, they are always thinking of 
the hour when they will be idle. The only soul who is sure of un- 
limited work is the miserable wretch who is underpaid, who gives 
a day of toil for an hour of compensation. 

He who knows that employment may be had for a 
year will worry about the time to follow; if he is sure of four years, 
he frets about the blank fifth; if his contract runs for ten years, he 
is uneasy about the eleventh; and we know a Baltimore lady, who 
leased her land at a large annual rental for ninety-nine years, who 



150 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

said she was always uneasy at the thought of the lease being broken. 
John B. Gough told the story of a spinster, a thin, dried-up woman 
of forty and over, whom he found weeping bitterly at the side of a 
curbstone. He sought the cause of her anguish, and she said she 
was thinking that if she should get married and have a child, and 
the child should fall into the drain and be drowned, she should go 
distracted the rest of her natural life. While the story is probably 
not true, it well illustrates the tendency of humanity to borrow 
trouble. 

Worrying may be done in silence and yet be as de- 
structive of the vital forces as though it were done openly. Some 
women withdraw to have a cry where no one will know what is 
going on. Men often go apart to think out the problems alone. 
It is sometimes thought that if the means of living could be pro- 
vided in ample abundance clear down to the end of the longest life 
probable, there would be nothing to worry about. This is far from 
true. The rich are always anxious. At a gathering of more than 
a score of ladies the question was asked, what was the most trouble- 
some thing in life, and all but two answered, the servant question. 
Those who are too poor to hire a servant escape a large field of 
worriment, while those who are endowed with the good fortune to 
be able to hire help are to be more pitied than their humbler 
fellow mortals. 

We met a young man of unusual capabilities ; one who 
was bright, smart, magnetic and of the highest intelligence. He 
delivered a course of lectures when less than a quarter of a century 
old, the most powerful of which was a strong assault upon the evil 
habit of borrowing trouble. Ten } r ears later we met him under 
changed conditions, and our first remark was that he looked wor- 
ried. "Ah!" he said, with a sigh, "You have not forgotten my 
lecture. I was a guide-post, was I not, pointing the way but not 
going thereon. Let me tell you how it is. My income never ex- 
ceeds two hundred dollars a month. I pay forty dollars a month 
for house rent, and it is the cheapest that will do me. Lighting 
averages seven dollars a month; heating, seven dollars: my grocery 
bill, forty dollars; my butcher's bill, thirty dollars; my wife has 
three children and is ill, which requires two nurses and a cook, the 
wages of whom aggregate forty dollars. You see, forty is my lucky 
number. How much is that? One hundred and sixty-four dollars, 
so far, per month. The doctor runs up a bill of ten to twenty 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OE HELL 151 

dollars every blessed month I live; last year he made it fully that, 
and he conies right along now. My wife's mother is homeless, lost 
her fortune, and lives with us. My wife's sister was abused by her 
drunken husband, and had no place to go, so she came to live at 
our house. She is getting a divorce. Being penniless, she must be 
taken care of at my expense, and being an invalid, I must hire and 
feed her nurse. Then the cost of medicines, clothing, and a hun- 
dred little things, must be met. I run behind more than a hundred 
dollars a month. When I was courting my betrothed — and she is 
the best of wives— I pictured to myself and to her a future in which 
parties, dances, theatres, drives and pleasures galore would make 
us weary with their abundance. How is it now? When I come 
away from the house each day I hang my head; when I approach it, 
I never look up. In it or out, I am unhappy. What can I do? 
If I go to a less expensive place my chances of earning as much 
as I now do would be destroyed, and while I might make more by 
starting out for myself, there would be a long period of time in 
which I could not earn anything, during which my wife and three 
children, her mother, her sister and two children, and the four 
servants would have no means of sustaining life." And he dropped 
his chin to his chest as he plodded on. 

The foregoing case is an actual one, every detail of 
which is true. W^e ask our students to tell us for him what he 
should do. Solve the problem, if you can; send us the solution, 
and we will forward it to the man. His case is but one of hundreds 
of thousands in which the same principle is involved. What can 
he do? Shall he go on incurring debts that can never be paid? 
He tries to be honest. He does not spend a cent for pleasure while 
he is in debt. He allows himself nothing, not even a cigar. It is 
true that the two hundred dollars per month is a large income, but 
it is possible only in a city where the rents and other expenses are 
proportionately great; if he were to curtail the latter, he would 
lose the former. You may tell him not to worry, and of course it 
would be heroic for a refined and sensitive soul not to feel any 
anxiety for the future, whose opportunities he had mortgaged, and 
whose only hope lay in the operation of the statute of limitations. 
To advise him not to worry is not to solve the problem. If you are 
in a bottomless pit, and climb up one foot, then fall back two, and 
continue to move at this rate, how long will you keep at it without 
some worrying? 



152 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

Between the case just cited and that told by Mr. Gough, 
we see the two extremes; one with something to worry for, the other 
with realty nothing. History shows its one kind of solution in the 
lives of men who have been recklessly careless, whose lack of 
worrying has been a total lack of interest. They have attended to 
the battle of the world while giving no thought to the struggle at 
home; and wife and children have died, leaving these husbands to 
carry on the conflict with less burdens, like the swimmer who sank 
with three children clinging to his neck, and rose to the surface 
without them. The statement was recently made in public that 
men were not attracted to married life because of this condition; 
that they preferred the certainty of their freedom and its inde- 
pendence to the other certainty of being unable to support a sickly 
wife and children. It is a fact that the most suitable men, other- 
wise, for matrimony will not allow themselves to be carried into 
the vortex; fewer of the desirable men marry; they admit this to be 
the reason, and the condition is getting worse every year. Only 
yesterday a gentleman remarked, "I am a bachelor, or soon will be 
so-called. I owe nobody. Single life means to me freedom from 
worry." And he gave his reasons in full. 

Let us see what they are. He went on to say, ' ; I 
have an income of two or three thousand dollars a year from my 
business. I spend one thousand a year on myself. The woman 
who would be my wife would desire a thousand for herself. She 
would be right. The rent and plain expenses would eat up all the 
rest of my income; and to half live, I must run in debt. Xow I 
save up a thousand a year against the future rainy days; if I were 
to get married I would exhaust the rainy day fund, incur debts I 
could never pay, and worry nryself sick." Another man said: "I 
earn a thousand dollars a year, and have an extra income of two 
hundred dollars, making a total of one hundred dollars a month. 
This is good. I proposed to a girl, and we got ready to be married. 
I told her what my income was before the proposal. Her mother 
kindly figured out that we could not possibly live in a house, as 
the daughter could not cook, and a servant would be out of the 
question; therefore we must board. We cast about to find a suit- 
able place for boarding; the least desirable was twenty dollars a 
month, each, for meals and twenty-five for a room if we had but 
one room; a sum of sixty-five dollars. Then there must be at least 
twenty-five per month allowed as pin-money to the wife, five dollars 



REALM OF TEE ESTATE OF HELL 153 

for laundrying, ten for theatres, as she had always been so brought 
up; and here we exceeded my salary. So I stopped. Not a cent 
remained to pay for my own clothing, and there was no chance of 
laying by a little every month as a nucleus for a home. When the 
suggestion was made by the good lady, to the effect that a baby 
might appear once in every year or two, and that nurses, doctors 
and help must then be had, we turned pale as death/ 7 This man 
has never married. The girl is a spinster with no prospects. His 
recent words on the subject were: "We both did right. Marriage 
under those conditions would have been a hell, and I am glad I am 
out of it." When deliberate thought and judgment are paramount 
to love, few marriages occur. The woman cannot be blamed; the 
man cannot be blamed. 

Fussing and fault-finding are detrimental to magnetism, 
and these things arise in marriage more than in single life. It is 
not that we would discourage wedlock, but that we wish to state 
the facts when we say that, in that state, the man and woman both 
have more difficulties to surmount than otherwise. The wife is 
harassed by little cares, each trifling in itself, but wearying in the 
accumulation; and the husband, who has always been selfishly 
wrapped up in himself, now finds demands made on his time and 
patience that he never would have dreamed possible. Then he 
begins to fret, to fuss, and find fault, as though the f's were follow- 
ing him like an avenging spirit. His magnetism flies away; it is in 
chaotic confusion. 

When we look into the lives of the most magnetic men 
of history we find them selfish in their devotion to their public 
work, and neglectful of family. These great men do not take their 
wives and children with them in their careers; they may provide 
well for their maintenance, give them fine estates, and spend their 
vacations at home, or bring them to some place of residence that 
may suit their prominent stations in life, leaving them there as 
they go forth to their greater work. Daniel Webster rarely ever 
took his family from Marshfield, Massachusetts, in those years when 
he was a rising star. Eufus Choate tore himself away from all 
home cares in the professions of law and politics, and rarely ever 
knew what was going on, except when within the walls of the 
dwelling, and then only so far as himself and his books were con- 
cerned. Edward Everett had won international fame before he was 
married, and his brilliant public career was free from home cares 



154 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

even to the last days of his usefulness. He traveled without his 
family in that remarkable tour of lectures in which he raised sixty 
thousand dollars for the fund to rescue Mt. Yernon from the hands 
of speculators. Charles Sumner had hut a few days of married life, 
walking out of his home never to enter it again. And we might 
go on without limit, citing the lives of the world's magnetic men 
who have been compelled to live in freedom from home cares in 
order to secure control of themselves in careers of grandeur. 

Exceptions to this rule are so few as to not bear exami- 
nation; their very scarcity being proof of the main fact. The 
successful men of genius, whose magnetism has paved the way to 
fame, are either unmarried, or are free from home cares and worry. 
Gladstone is cited as an example to the contrary; but what are the 
facts in his case? His wife, either by an acute knowledge of life, 
or by some kind spirit of intuition, did in fact accompany him on 
all his toures of oratory in which his magnetism was most dis- 
played; yet she did this not to place the burden of her care upon 
him, but to relieve him of that and of all thought of himself. She 
watched his health momentarily, listened to his speeches, arranged 
through her own efforts and those of others all the details of travel, 
and left him free from all worry. Indeed this case, that is quoted 
as an exception to the claim that magnetism cannot endure or 
survive the wear and tear of trifles, such as surround the married 
man, is proof of the efficiency of such freedom, for Mrs. Gladstone 
had the rare faculty of protecting her husband from such annoy- 
ing influences. She even knew what was best in diet, day by day; 
she went so far as to select the clothing needed by the changing 
temperature, and it was her j)leasure to watch every effect made by 
him for success or weakening, so that she might guide him by her 
advice. Such a wife would save any man a vast amount of mag- 
netism. Such a wife was Mrs. Blaine, who watched her husband 
as devotedly, although she did not always accompany him. 

Opposed to these queenly influences are the fretting 
and fussing wives that lean altogether upon their husbands, exact- 
ing not only all the large and small attentions due, but requiring 
them to manage the household affairs from the least to the greatest 
details. The man who plays nurse at home, who is housemaid and 
kitchen-adviser, whose little moments are consumed in petty chores 
that yield no return for the time expended, can never hope to rise 
above such conditions. He is anchored in a small rivulet, and will 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF HELL 155 

never hear the waters of the mighty river of life sweeping past him, 
much less catch the sound of the magnetic ocean beyond. We 
advise all who can control their fate to develop the greatest mag- 
netism if those years which precede marriage, as did Everett and 
others; then success is within reach before the cares come, and 
the fretting things may be ignored or thrust upon attaches. 

The habit of borrowing trouble starts with very little 
provocation, and sooner or later grows to be a mountain. Those 
who suffer from it are useless to themselves and almost so to others. 
It is the looking ahead, and taking to heart the possibilities, how- 
ever remote, of something befalling. Due care is necessary at all 
times to avert much of the sickness and misfortune that would 
otherwise come; but there is a vast difference between stepping aside 
to let the carriage pass, and sitting down on a rock to bemoan the 
chances of your distant relative being run over by the same vehicle. 
One act is caution born of judgment, the other is a vision of distress 
created out of a weak brain or deficient character. Trouble-bor- 
rowers are always in debt to unknown happiness, and are always 
making their payments to the account of misery. 

Owing to an imperfect adjustment of things, there are 
real troubles that come to all persons; some seem to arrive in droves, 
like cattle on the stampede; others hold aloof till later life, and are 
gentle in their approach. It is natural for parents and elderly 
relatives to be taken away before you are called to go, and you may 
be compelled to see these dear ones laid to rest, one after the other, 
although it is possibly your wish that they outlive you. "I hope 
to die first," said the wife to her husband. "But what of my loneli- 
ness?" he asked. Funerals have a most depressing influence over 
many persons, as they realize the fact that they must pass through 
the agony of dissolution. Not one can escape its dread toils. The 
older we live, the less we fear death. We get tired of life by having 
too much of it. So the reasoning goes. The better way is to realize 
the great responsibilities of living, and let death stand out of your 
thoughts. 

Most persons make some mistake in life and are 
weighed down by the thoughts of it. They seem to see the finger 
of scorn always pointed at them, as though there were no erasing 
of misdeeds. Conscience did not prevent them committing the 
error, but remorse follows the act like a dark bird whose wings 
overshadow every good purpose. There is no past. Actions pro- 



156 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

•ceed in chains, and the links of sin may forge their consequences in 
divine goodness. The after effects of wrong are visions that live in 
fewer minds than the sufferer supposes. Good men and women fall, 
some suddenly, and some from great heights; but there is no crime, 
however black, that cannot be lived down and wiped out on earth 
and in the records of the hereafter by resolute goodness. There is 
no past. You of yesterday, who broke the commandments, are 
not the same person who to-day honestly keeps them. 

If you worry because of the errors of the past, take 
•courage in the thought that the past dies in its going. There is no 
past to-day, nor will there be to-morrow. He who resolves, and 
actually begins, to do right, overthrows the soul that was steeped 
in crime. The same body changes continually; the soul is driven 
off, and a new being enters in its place. Only the miuds of mortals, 
only the memories of defective humanity, are able to recall the 
iniquities of the past in the lives of those who are honestly resolved 
to act aright. Neither God Himself, nor any angel in heaven re- 
members the evil committed by one who is saved. It is an im- 
possibility, because there is no past. If it were not so, what pleasure 
would there be for you to go to heaven, and there meet the girl 
you have wronged, the father who slew your mother, the sister who 
brought shame upon her home, the wife who was unfaithful, or the 
brother who robbed the bank? 

Life is in the present, though always searching out the 
path for the future. Hugo could not remember much of the first 
years of his existence, and nothing of the epochs in which he had 
previously been on earth, as he chose to believe, for to him ihere 
could be no past. He had no positive proof of such prior living in 
the flesh, but merely entertained it as a belief. Knowing the calm- 
ness of mind that is produced by such a glance backward and a look 
forward, he worried about nothing. It is sufficient for us to secure 
our calmness from the fact that a hundred years hence not even 
our grandchildren's posterity will know anything of our having 
dwelt upon the planet. As our ancestors of a hundred years ago are 
not known to-day, except perhaps by name, so we must be brushed 
off the globe as indistinct characters, whose only force will be in 
the spelling of the words that may be attached to our place in the 
lineage. 

Under such circumstances is it worth while to worry ? 
Care should be taken to avoid all the mistakes, miseries and mis- 



REALM OF TEE ESTATE OF HELL 157 

fortunes of this life; no duty should be neglected; the best of earth 
that is honestly attainable should be secured to our use; love and 
pleasure, enjoyment and happiness should be courted and won; but 
no man or woman should worry. "Is it worth while ?" Look at 
the opening illustration of this principle; think where your an- 
cestors of a hundred years ago are to-day, and where you will be a 
century hence; then become philosophical. Napoleon was immov- 
able when he chose. Not a line on his countenance revealed the im- 
pression that the most exciting circumstances made within. Some 
of the most successful men and women have trained themselves 
against display of feeling in the presence of others, and this mn^t 
come out of a perfect control of self when alone. Worry is full of 
life-destroying influences. It sends its millions to the grave every 
year. It kills life, heart, magnetism and brain. It is the enemy 
of ambition, the executioner of happiness. 

S 432 | 

Pain weakens magnetism. 

This is the 432d Ralston Principle. The nervous system yields 
out its vitality during pain, and it goes from the body in large 
quantities. It is not possible for a person who is thus afflicted to 
remain calm, except under so great a strain in the effort that weak- 
ness must follow, and this is almost as wearying as the suffering 
itself. It is true that some may cultivate the power of forgetting 
or not feeling the agony that is racking the system; but this re- 
quires will of the strongest kind, and while the mind is thus closed 
against the sensation, the loss of energy is going on just the same. 

Pain is always accompanied by a rapid waste of mag- 
netism. It is claimed by some that pain is caused by this waste. If 
not, where does pain originate? It is in the nerves, felt by the 
nerves, and conveyed to the brain by the nerves. A pulling, stretch- 
ing, pressing or severing of the nerves may awaken their action to 
the sensation called pain. But why not the bones or cords likewise? 
Why should the nerves alone contain the power of suffering? The 
answer may be: To warn us of danger. But why not any other 
part as well? And how is this alarm produced? Do the nerves 
vibrate in pain? Are they contorted? Does not the electric fire 



V 



158 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

flash in minute subdivision along the fine fibres? These are cer- 
tainly the facts, and we may resolve them into a simple law, some- 
what as follows: 

Pain is an excitement of the nerve fibres caused by a violent 
movement of the electricity of the body along the fibres, thereby 
heating them intensely. 

In support of this theory are the following facts: 

1. Electricity is heating. 

2. Pain is always attended by heat. 

3. The electricity of the body is part of its vitality. 

4. The vitality is quickly exhausted by pain. 

5. Great pain is liable to deplete the body of all its vitality, 
producing death. 

6. When we burn our flesh the nerves alone suffer, and their 
destruction ends the pain. 

7. The cure of pain is not in conflict with this theory. 

It is known that if a nerve be pressed by the finger so as 
to shut off its flow of electricity, or if it be severed, or drugged to 
accomplish the same end, all pain above the cut-off still remains, 
but all feeling below or beyond the cut-off is instantly lost and 
cannot be restored until the current is allowed to flow there airain. 
Devices of every kind have been thought of to hold in check this 
fluid of life, so as to cause less suffering. The gum at the teeth is 
frozen by cocaine to make extraction painless: but the half-destroyed 
flesh will not heal rapidly, and the idea is not favored by all dentists 
on that account. Hypnotism is considered an excellent anaesthetic, 
for the most difficult amputations may be performed by its aid: 
but the loss of vitality is just as great, and the deadening of all the 
other functions, as in catalepsy, makes it harder to revive the 
patient. "ISTow wake up!" exclaims the operator, after the leg has 
been removed; but the patient does not wake up. 

Troublesome teeth should be removed if the pain 
cannot be overcome in any other way. There are very derided 
reasons why decayed teeth should not be allowed to remain, the 
foremost of which is the loss of magnetism and the lowering of all 
vitality throughout the body, including that of mind, of heart, of 
stomach and of respiration. These losses mean less pleasure as veil 
as less health in life. Decav of the teeth always contains bacteria 
of disease, and some of these are of the diptheria species. There 
are numerous instances of continued sore throats, bronchial catarrh, 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF HELL 159 

sores, abscesses, and other maladies, that have been cured only by 
the removal of decayed teeth. We recall over a hundred cases 
where persons have been unable to develop any magnetism on 
account of this condition, who, under advice, have had the upper 
teeth taken out and plates substituted, thus putting in clean, strong 
teeth that cannot ache or decay; and the result has been almost 
marvelous in health and vitality as well as in the acquisition of 
magnetism. 

Pain should not be endured, and especially not in these 
intensely aching little agents. Even the lower teeth are now sub- 
stituted by the bridge system, so that much misery is averted. A 
dull, throbbing, unending pain in so sensitive a thing as a tooth 
is always a drain upon the vitality of the body. A neuralgic head- 
ache is equally deplorable, and ninety per cent, of humanity suffer 
from this one malady alone, not knowing that the cure is within the 
reach of all, as set forth in the fifth degree book of the Ealston 
Club. Yet few persons take the required interest in themselves to 
keep off this kind of pain. To endure it is to make a magnetic life 
impossible. Neuralgia is simple in its cause and as simple in its 
remedy. 

Other forms of pain, as of dyspepsia, rheumatism and 
sore lungs, are detrimental to a magnetic existence. They can be 
conquered, and should be expelled from the system as soon as 
possible; not only because they drain it of its vitality and health, 
but because they are unnecessary. They are due to varied causes, 
one of the most prolific of which is the reversing of the order of 
eating, or taking the heavy meal at the close of the day, and then 
having little or no appetite for breakfast. This is the height of 
stupidity, and, like most other kinds of nonsense, is popular with 
the sickly classes. The absence of the morning meal, or of a 
strongly nutrious breakfast, is the cause of some forms of headache 
and stomach trouble, which most persons prefer to endure rather 
than try the cure. 

" The clouds that fling 

The lightning brighten ere the holt appears ; 
The pantings of the warrior's heart are proud 
Upon that battle morn whose night-dews wet his shroud ; 

The sun is loveliest as he sinks to rest 

The leaves of autumn smile when fading fast ; 

The swan's last song is sweetest." 



160 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

^ 433 B 

Insomnia is caused by erratic nerves. 

This is the 433d Ealston Principle. In the present age of 
reckless disregard to the health of body and mind this malady is on 
the increase, and that most rapidly. We do not propose to discuss 
the remedy, as it is very simple as well as completely effective, as 
stated in the fifth degree book of the Ealston Club. We wish to 
state, in this connection, that when the tendency to insomnia is 
apparent, it is useless to spend any time in the present course of 
study, except so much as may be necessary to accumulate will- 
power enough to follow the cure stated in the book we have men- 
tioned. 

It is however quite true that where sleeplessness is due 
to conditions that do not arise from a wrong diet, or from wrong 
physical habits, its cure is within the province of this volume of 
advanced magnetism, arid then largely through regime and the 
use of will-power. Sleep is not likely to come to one whose mag- 
netism is kept too active late in the evening, unless the ability to 
open and shut the brain at will has been acquired. This is dis- 
cussed under another principle herein. The eating of foods that 
produce excessive vitality, as of the phosphatic kind, will tend to 
keep the nerves awake if eaten within four hours before retiring. 
So the use of muscle-making diet will keep the muscles twitching, 
and thus prevent sleep. All these matters are discussed in the 
Ralston Health books. 

In the present age, which is the least magnetic of any, the 
custom of going without breakfast, or eating one that is too light, 
because of a lack of appetite, and which originates from the still 
more dangerous custom of eating a heavy meal in the evening, is 
fast destroying the vitality of the people. It is never safe to com- 
mence the duties of the day without a good breakfast to lean upon. 
The usual idea of working or exercising early in the morning, in 
order to create an appetite that cannot possibly come with an over- 
loaded system from the night before, is as ill in its results as it is 
wrong in principle, for it calls into circulation and into the organs 
that need the best blood, the very worst; giving the stomach and 
heart the matter that is becoming effete. The vellow and bilious 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF HELL 161 

skin is evidence of such a reversal of the proper plan of eating. 
Add to the weakened organs a lessened vitality that comes from the 
lack of sound sleep at night, and the explanation of the fact that 
this era is the least magnetic known is easily understood. 

A condition that prevents sleep is always a dangerous 
one, and no time should be lost in correcting it, not by the sense- 
less proceeding of taking drugs, but by going at once to the source 
and starting there. Of all the modern schemes for shortening life, 
and destroying happiness while life lasts, the most inane is that 
which fails to recognize that an inverted method of living is the 
cause of disturbed slumber, dreams that tire, and insomnia itself; 
while drugs that deaden the heart and nerves are used to force sleep 
against the continued abuse of life. It is exactly as sensible for a 
person to place a flame under the extended hand, and then seek 
to rely upon anaesthetics to deaden all sensibility to pain while 
refusing to withdraw the fire. 

Nearly all kinds of weakness in this age are traceable to 
such a lack of judgment. As far as health is concerned, the matter 
rests in the care of those who wish freedom from disease. As far 
as magnetism is concerned, it is necessary to have the best of 
health as a basis, and there must be release from continuous pain; 
there must be natural vitality and sound sleep. It is true that, after 
a fund of magnetism has been secured, a person may take greater 
chances with health than before, as the extra vitality will permit 
abuse. The greater the life, the more reckless its owner may be, 
but while vitality is being sought it is dangerous to abuse it. 

1 434 1 

Gloomy moods are hypnotic and not magnetic. 

This is the 434th Ralston Principle. In order to acquire mag- 
netism, which is of a positive character, it is very essential that all 
tendencies toward hypnotism be avoided, for this is of a negative 
character. One tends always to brighten and to uplift; it has only 
its moments and hours of sunshine. The other is a haunting dream, 
as any hypnotist will tell you; it sees night and gloom and dis- 
couragement, never thinking of hope unless that mood is thrust 
upon it by force of circumstances; never knowing ambition's keen 



162 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

enjoyment, but rather following in the trail of another, like cattle 
to the slaughter. 

This may be allied to worry but is not a species of it. 
The fear of going to sleep at night, because horrible dreams are 
sure to come, is not exactly the same thing as worry; it is a con- 
dition of fact, and not something of the imagination. The ex- 
periences of those who have been prey to bad dreams concur in the 
proof that gloomy moods and hypnotic tendencies are allied to such 
dreams. A highly magnetic person never suffers from any of these 
things; sleep is not only solid and continuous, but it is free from 
visitations of every sort. On the other hand, the negative natures 
are nearly always suffering from one kind of evil influence or an- 
other. For such reason alone, if for no other, it is highly important 
that all persons should get on the positive side of magnetism, and 
remain there. 

In this line of investigation we find the statements of 
others helpful in showing the connection between one condition 
and the other. A woman says: "I thought it a very interesting ex- 
periment to allow a gentleman friend to practice hypnotizing me. 
I trifled for a while, then gave in seriously, and he succeeded to an 
extent, till I stopped it. I found myself getting gloomy and having 
visions, especially as the dark would come on. When I went to bed 
at night I thought I heard a man under my bed asleep, breathing 
and half snoring. I was too frightened to look. This continued 
for five weeks. I never slept soundly, but had dreams that were 
too fearful to describe. My gloom by day became so much worse 
that I was sure I would go crazy. One night I could not go to 
bed at home, and I told my experience to an elderly lady friend, 
who invited me to come to stay with her. I went to sleep quickly, 
and felt as though I would awake refreshed. During the night I 
felt some one tugging away at the clothes, as though big hands 
clutched them and would give quick jerks; soon I found myself 
uncovered and awoke. My companion was sleeping peacefully. I 
fell into a doze, and a pair of hard, bony hands had hold of my feet 
at the ankles, hurting them as thev tugged away. That this was 
not a dream is proved by my position at the foot of the bed. to 
which place I was pulled. I awoke fully, got up and lighted the 
gas, then looked under the bed; but there was no human being in 
the room but us. I was soon in bed again, resolved to lie awake. 
This I did. In five minutes, or soon after, I felt a very icy hand 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF HELL 163 

enter the bed between the clothes and creep toward my feet. I did 
not withdraw them. Soon it clutched me by the toes so hard that 
I sprang quickly to it; I actually caught it, and held it for a second; 
then I let it go, as I saw a face in the dark lean over me and grin 
hideously. I screamed, and when my friend awoke I told her the 
whole story. We talked the matter over, and decided that I was 
under the influence of this man. A physician recommended to me 
the study of magnetism (Shaftesbury), and helped me the very next 
day to throw off this evil influence. I began to develop magnetism, 
and was myself again, and now am so strong that no one can ever 
make me gloomy again." Her case was fully investigated,' and it 
was found that every essential fact stated was proved true. 

In the same class of operations we find experiences of 
great value, all confirming the general statement that gloom, de- 
pression, despondency, discouragement and low vitality are asso- 
ciated with hypnotic tendencies or some degree of negative mag- 
netism. Compare, if you will, the following account, which is 
strictly authentic in every particular, and see what bearing it may 
have on the question under examination. A young man writes: "I 
was always afraid of evening and of darkness, in or out of doors. 
This had been so from my earliest recollection. I was converted, 
experiencing the joys of salvation, and, to my surprise, all fears left 
me. The dividing line of this change may be of interest to you in 
your desire to settle the question why it is so. It was on a Monday 
night, when I had my usual frightful dream, from which I had 
known no relief in many years. My heart was converted during a 
noon meeting on Tuesday, the next day; but I did not rise for 
prayers, and make open confession, until that evening. When' I 
went home I was a new man; I retired as usual, but the gloom of 
my haunted life had disappeared. Sleep was sound, was, indeed, 
sweet and profound. All dreams stopped, and to this day I have 
never known what it is to be hounded by the frightful visions that 
had always made night a season to be dreaded. The gloomy fore- 
bodings ceased altogether." This case has its value, but it is not 
alone. So numerous have been the experiences of exactly the same 
kind, where bad dreams and dismal gloom have been forever dis- 
pelled by conversion, that one might be tempted to believe them 
to be the works of the devil which the spirit of God had overcome. 
In another department of this work we show the positive magnetic 
nature of conversion, and it is not by any means to the disparage- 



164 



UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 



/ 



ment of religions experience to say that it is of the highest order of 
nervous magnetism, although it may lack the mental and physical 
vitalities necessary for the highest success in secular life. 

This class of cases cannot be said to furnish the only in- 
stances where gloom and its depressing forebodings are to be found. 
As rectitude and true living will magnetize and uplift one's nature, 
scattering away the fear and horror that hypnotic conditions en- 
gender, so wickedness of an alarming character may throw a person 
into the very depths of suffering. That which the mind carries as 
its burden of frightful remorse must equal the torments of hell, 
whether in fact or in fancy. Daniel Webster knew enough of the 
blackened side of conscience to be able to depict the relentless and 
torturing horror which pursues a guilty human being on whose 
hands the red blood of murder has left its stain. He speaks in 
classic force of this hauting spirit: "Meantime, the guilty soul 
cannot keep its own secret. It is false to itself! or rather it feels 
an irresistible impulse of conscience to be true to itself. It labors 
under its guilty possession, and knows not what to do with it. The 
human heart was not made for the residence of such an inhabitant. 
It finds itself preyed on by a torment, which it dares not acknowl- 
edge to God or man. A vulture is devouring it, and it asks no 
sympathy or assistance, either from heaven or earth. The secret 
which the murderer possesses, soon comes to possess him; and, like 
the evil spirits of which we read, it overcomes him, and leads him 
whithersoever it will. He feels it beating at his heart, rising to his 
throat, and demanding disclosure. He thinks the whole world sees 
it in his face, reads it in his eyes, and almost hears its workings in 
the very silence of his thoughts. It has become his master. It 
betrays his discretion, it breaks down his courage, it conquers his 
prudence. When suspicions from without begin to embarass him. 
and the net of circumstances to entangle him, the fatal secret 
struggles with still greater violence to burst forth. It must be con- 
fessed; it will be confessed; there is no refuge from confession but 
suicide; and suicide is confession." In a similar vein, but with 
words more in touch with the lower stratum of crime, Dickens 
drives his remorse-stricken characters on to frencv, and skives them 
a sort of happy relief when they are captured and led to unburden 
themselves. 

The master genius of gloom was Edgar Allan Poe. 
whose bard sang only on the crater of the black abyss that marked 



REALM OF TEE ESTATE OF HELL 165 

the entrance to gchenna in the mind's deep sufferings. He strikes 
every chord in the scale of anguish. His own brain was a whirl- 
pool of discord. Intuitively he caught the meaning of negative 
magnetism, for he makes his gloomiest characters confess that the 
eye of an innocent old man hypnotized him into crime and destruc- 
tion. Here is the instigation: "It is impossible to say how first 
the idea entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day 
and night. Object, there was none. Passion, there was none. I 
loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never 
given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his 
eye! yes, it was this! One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture — 
a pale-blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my 
blood ran cold; and so by degrees— very gradually — I made up my 
mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the 
eye forever." After he had kept good his resolve, and the officers were 
come to search the premises, it seems that the hypnotic presence of 
the sense of sound drove him to confession. The men came in with- 
out directing their suspicions toward him; they merely waited for 
the suffering soul to speak forth of its own accord. Here is the 
language with which Poe clothes this haunted mind, driven to 
despair by its own gloom: "I paced the floor to and fro with heavy 
strides, as if excited to fury by the observations of the men — but 
the noise steadily increased. God! what could I do? I foamed — ■ 
I raved — I swore! I swung the chair upon which I had been sitting, 
and grated it upon the boards, but the noise arose over all and 
continually increased. It grew louder — louder — louder. And still 
the men chatted pleasantly and smiled. Was it possible they heard 
not? They heard! — they suspected! they knew! they were making 
a mockery of my horror! this I thought, and this I think. But 
anything was better than this agony! Anything was more tolerable 
than this ^derision! I can bear those hypocritical smiles no longer! 
I felt that I must scream or die! — and now — again! — hark! louder! 
louder! louder! louder! /Villains!' I shrieked, 'dissemble no more! 
I admit the deed — tear up the planks! here! here! it is the beating 
of his hideous heart.'" In like vein all portrayers of this dark side 
of life have presented word-pictures of the torment that brawls and 
rages within. 



166 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 



^)&i^&&&&&&^ 


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Jk 


i 435 


I 



A lapse of thought is a brief hypnotic condition. 

This is the 435th Balston Principle. When the engineer of an 
express, under pressure of excitement, opened the throttle of his 
engine and crossed in front of a flying train, he did so because 
he "could not think." His mind was a blank. Another engineer} 
who had struck a carriage, killing two human beings, stopped at 
the place of the accident, then went ahead and took a siding to 
await the passing of a "flyer." As the swiftly-going locomotive 
approached, he advanced his train and was killed in front of the 
"flyer." His lapse cost his life and two engines. 

These absences of mind are very common, and show 
that incidents may temporarily hypnotize. They are too serious 
to be passed over lightly at this time. It is a common experience 
with nearly every person to pass through moments or parts of 
moments in which consciousness is a blank; and this is excused on 
the ground that the mind, being busy with more important things, 
could not attend to lesser details. Such an excuse should never be 
tolerated by one who wishes to be useful to himself or to the world. 
An animal can think of but one thing at a time, and it is generally 
known that if we can engross the attention in one direction, ad- 
vantage may be taken in another; but this is not true of human 
beings who are mentally able to guard their interests. It is through 
the maintenance of a single idea at a time that educators of animals 
succeed in mastering them. 

The lapse of thought gives opportunity to tricksters 
as well as to those who seek legitimate control of their fellow beings. 
Nothing is more interesting than to watch the sleight-of-hand per- 
former as he openly introduces or removes details of his entertain- 
ment while engrossing the attention of his audience in some matter 
that is strong enough to keep them engaged for a minute or two in 
following its action. Thus, standing at one corner of the platform 
or stage, he will hold up something under circumstances that give 
rise to suspicion, and will ask his audience to watch him closely, 
so as to detect any attempt on his part to deceive them. The matter 
is well worth watching, for it would react upon him if he should 
expose this part of his work as a mere trick to keep their eyes away 
from some more important change going on in the center of the 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF HELL 167 

stage. Every eve is focused upon what he. is doing; and, no matter 
how importanl any other action on another part of the stage might 

be, the audience would not notice it, unless something occurred to 
transfer their attention. It is very hard to watch two or more pro* 
ceedings going on at the same time some distance apart. 

So well known is this fact that dramatic companies do 
not hesitate to take advantage of it. When an actor is delivering 
his lines, QT two or more are engaged in a portrayal of absorbing 
interest, others of the company, who happen to he on the stage at 
the same time, are content to merely balance the scene and form an 
entertaining tableau to which a little by-play is added. It is only 
when the general action is evenly distributed in several parts of the 
arena that audiences attempt to catch what is going on in more 
than one place at a time. Even those who have attended the per- 
formances of skilful prestidigitators for the purpose of detecting 
what is done in those moments when the attention of the audience 
is being held to one corner of the stage are generally unable to 
withdraw their gaze and scan other portions of the platform. We 
recall a party of investigators who could not possibly follow the 
details which were enacted by an assistant in the center while the 
performer stood lower down, close to the footlights, although both 
could have been clearly seen; but a more practiced observer noted 
the bringing in of properties, the presence of which could not after- 
ward be accounted for by the audience. 

Lapses of mind occur in every-day life ; and it is some- 
times claimed that the busier a person may be, the more frequently 
these vacuities happen; but this assertion can be challenged. A 
person may be on the positive side of magnetism and yet allow 
the mind to suffer a lapse. The sub-conscious faculty, even when 
it gives rise to the brilliant evidences of the highest genius, is in 
a lapsed state; its gifts of fancy, its dreams of coming realism, 
its charming leaps into the realm of intuition, and the glimpses it 
often catches of the inmost secrets of life, are all born in sub-con- 
sciousness. During the moments, hours, and sometimes days, in 
which genius revels in this realm, the mind is not a negative mag- 
netic force, although its condition is lapsed; yet, in such mood-. 
the poet, the author, the orator, the artist or other dreamer may 
be taken advantage of. 

Evidences of this character are found in the lives i>f 
most geniuses. I >aniel Webster was always without funds, although 



168 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

he received as high as one hundred thousand dollars for his services 
in a single case. His money disappeared as fast as he received it; 
he was preyed upon by all kinds of beggars, by his impecunious 
friends, and by claimants in every station of life, even being so for- 
getful as to pay the same bill six times. The Eiggs Bank, of Wash- 
ington, D. C, still holds an unpaid note of his for the amount of 
one thousand dollars, which he endorsed for the accommodation of 
a friend, he receiving five hundred dollars for his own use. Any 
biography will show greater aberrations of mind in lesser geniuses; 
but we cite the case of Webster for the reason that a man whose 
brain outweighed those of his contemporaries, and who carried upon 
his shoulders the weight of the American Constitution, would be 
able to attend to the lesser details of his own affairs. 

Under another principle it will be seen that the ablest 
men and women possess the gift of sub-consciousness in slight 
degree at least, while wielding a majestic power on the mag- 
netic side; and this doubling of two opposites separates the few 
individuals from the great masses of mankind. In analyzing such 
characters we find that the magnetism on the positive side does 
not save the individual from the lapse on the negative side, and 
this is why persons who are gifted in some department of life are 
so easily taken advantage of and become the marks of schemers. 
It is recorded of one person, whose exceptional ability gained for 
him more than two hundred thousand dollars in a single year, that 
he lost it all to sharpers within the space of one week. 

Passing out of the realm of genius we come to the 
every-day ranks of life, and find included herein many capable men 
and women, and those of high as well as low intelligence. Lapses, 
with them, are perhaps not so common as in the limited class to 
which we have just referred, and they show a negative condition 
generally unattended by any periods of positive magnetism. As 
we have previously stated, these are often charged to crowded duties 
or the many cares of the day. We know that the genius would be 
more successful in life if he suffered less from the consequences of 
his own vacuities, and the same is true of all men and women. In 
fact, the penalties to be paid by the ordinary individual are always 
greater in proportion, for there is not usually the gift of recupera- 
tion. Edwin Booth was led into an enterprise that cost him his 
entire fortune of nearly a million and an indebtedness of almost as 
much more; but his genius was of such a high order that he recup- 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF HELL 169 

■crated completely, paid his notes in full, and left a vast fortune at 
the time of his death. General Grant was taken advantage of at a 
time of his life, when, owing to sickness, he was unable to recover 
from his losses, and became the object of a princely charity. 

Nearly all errors of judgment, nearly all accidents, 
nearly all missteps in life are chargeable to lapses of mind, when, if 
the magnetism were only a positive force, an unbroken line of 
victory might be maintained. Experience is a splendid school, but 
does not come to the aid of him who needs it most until severe 
losses have been endured. The farmer who, by hearing of mis- 
fortunes of his neighbors, has schooled himself against similar ex- 
periences, and who is taken advantage of by the cheap magnetism 
of some traveling agent, wonders why he could permit himself to 
be fooled in this way. Were it not for such negative conditions 
among those who enjoy the training of city experience, the three- 
card-monte man, the green goods dealer and the bunco-steerer 
would not count as their prey so many men of supposed business 
sagacity. 

Forgetfulness is one form of lapse, but it is strictly an 
absence of memory, which need not indicate a lack of magnetism, 
although most persons who are magnetic have remarkably retentive 
memories. The true lapse appears in the vacuity of mind, where 
there is no tax placed upon the memory. Common illustrations of 
these are seen daily; and it is well known that the lapse is most 
frequent where the mind has the fewest cares. You may talk to a 
person in a voice loud enough to be heard rods away, and with 
enunciation that does not miss the full execution of a single syllable, 
yet the perscn addressed may know nothing of what you say, 
although there may be a pretense of having heard it all. Shame 
sometimes prevents the admission of such a lapse, so that the 
thought, with whatever of value it contains, is lost upon the air. 
Against this lapse the ordinary speaker is continually contending, 
and so common is it that he ejaculates, at the end of every idea, 
the interrogation, "See?" and waits for the response, "Yes," before 
proceeding further. 

We recall the case of a lady who, in her desire to avoid 
the usual interrogatory ejaculations of "See?" "Don't you know?" 
"Don't you see?" "Do you understand?" uses a rising inflection, and 
asks the question merely by her intonations, and waits, before pro- 
ceeding, until the person to whom she is speaking replies, ''Yes." 



170 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

This peculiar mannerism is an exact substitute for the ordinary- 
expressions which we have just cited; and it is safe to say that, as 
her attention has never been called to it, she is entirely oblivions 
of it. The following will serve as an example: "We went down as 
far as the bridge, and saw the train coming (?), so we stopped for a 
few minutes until the train had passed (?). It was going very fast 
and made a great deal of smoke (?). We hurried on, and waited at 
the side of the bridge for a freight train to pass (?) on the other 
track." At each place where the interrogation mark (?) appears in 
the foregoing quoted sentences the speaker raises her voice, uses 
a rising inflection, looks at the person addressed, waits until she 
receives some sign of acquiescence from the latter, and then goes 
on. If you ever have occasion to listen to a conversation carried on 
by two or more ladies during a social visit, you will notice that one 
of them continually reverses this mannerism by ejaculating "Yes," 
by which she indicates that she is paying full attention to what is 
being said, and thus prevents the use of the inquiry, "See?" which 
would otherwise be used. 

Persons who are busy mentally while engaged in the 
performance of duties often suffer vexing lapses. This is so com- 
mon with some persons as to be almost a nervous disease. We 
recall the case of a carpenter who would lay down a tool in one 
part of a building on which he was working, and who would spend 
considerable time in hunting it up. It is true that skilled laborers 
can easily recall where each tool is placed, unless they are afflicted 
with this vacuity of mind. The lapse occurs more frequently with 
those who are not pursuing their usual vocations at the time. In 
the use of garden tools it is very common for the amateur tiller of 
the soil to lay down a hoe, a rake, or spade in some place, and one 
minute after not have the slightest idea where it was put. This 
fault is so common as to prove annoying in the life of almost every 
individual. 

Exposure to colds and conditions that tend Co lessen 
the vitality and bring on disease may occur during a lapse of the 
mind or a weakness of the will. A person who is clad for indoors 
will escort a friend out of the room, and stand talking at the open 
door, where a chilling atmosphere is quickly stealing away the 
vitality, yet has no mental knowledge of the great risk which is 
being run. Carelessness of this kind has filled many a grave where 
the health seemed perfect, and the person has passed through the 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF HELL 171 

days and weeks of suffering, making a brave fight for life, and 
dying without for a moment having reali/ed that the fatality was 
due to this almost unaccountable lapse. So children are continually 
being exposed to the dangers of dampness, draughts and colds, and 
parents wonder why so many children are lost. 

Lapses of mind are dangerous in many cases and have 
led to misfortunes that might easily have been averted. There is 
no doubt that they are due and chargeable to negative magnetism, 
and could be prevented by the study and acquisition of positive 
magnetism. It seems to us that this is a duty. Not many years 
ago the practice began of examining all applicants for railway 
positions, to ascertain if they were color-blind; and there is no 
doubt that the rejection of such as were so afflicted has led to 
greater security in the service. It is fully as easy to test the mag- 
netic condition of men and women and their susceptibility to lapses. 
Nearly all the marine horrors and railroad holocausts would then 
be averted. 

Strangest among disasters are those that come to re- 
liable men, whose many years of experience should guard them 
against accident. This disposition to lapses comes with oft repeated 
monotony. An examination should be made once every year after 
a long period of service. Suppose the test in the time of first 
applying for a position should prove that the individual is not 
subject to lapses; then, after many years of faithful employment, 
another test is made, and the same person is found deficient in this 
regard; the only conclusion is that the constant attention to one 
line of duties has served to develop a state of negative magnetism, 
as any monotony will do. Hence comes the unaccountable acci- 
dent to the old and reliable engineer or sea-captain; and most 
of the terrible calamities are attributable to them. 

What caused the engineer to continue his train at reck- 
less speed, contrary to custom and to signals, knowing that another 
train was due to pass in front of him on a cross-track? He was not 
a drinking man, nor had he shown evidence of mental weakening. 
He rode openly to his death, and carried over eighty souls with 
him. He ranked among the most experienced, the coolest and 
clearest-headed of the engineers of the line. What caused another, 
equally careful and skilful, engineer to neglect to take the siding 
as usual, to allow a regular train to pass, instead of which he went 
blindly on, and collided at fearful speed on a sharp curve? AVhat 



172 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

•causes so many signaling men to give the wrong order, or to forget 
a plain duty? These must be lapses. 

The majority of the fearful wrecks at sea are due to 
these temporary vacuities of mind. It is otherwise unaccountable 
that the best masters of these ocean palaces should deliberately 
take their boats into positive danger. They do not commit the 
blunders thoughtfully, in an effort to get greater speed, or shorter 
distance out of the course; for then the results might be attributed 
to mistaken judgment. They do it thoughtlessly, stupidly, amaz- 
ingly. When the question is put to one of them, if he has survived, 
the answer is: "I found myself out of the true course, but how I 
got there I do not know/' And this is true. 

The bridegroom-elect who slipped one cog in his memory 
and went to his wedding one day late, was not as cordially wel- 
comed as one who went on Tuesday, instead of Wednesday; in the 
latter case the bride forgave him, and made him comfortable for 
twenty-four hours, while in the former instance she married the 
best man, and left a cold meal for the late-comer. It seems that 
there are certain persons in whose minds a complete vacuum is 
formed for everything except the routine details of life, and these 
may go amiss. The actor who is unable to remember his lines in 
the early days of a play is quite different from the one who, after 
knowing them perfectly for a year or more, suddenly loses them; 
in the first instance it is a failure of the memory, in the other it is 
a lapse of mind. For this reason, when companies in such pro- 
fession perform the same play for a year or more, the custom is to 
have prompters for the first few weeks, and, about a year later, to 
return the prompters. "Saying the same lines so frequently makes 
me lose them," says a well-known actor. 

On the witness stand many an honest man and woman 
has been made out a liar, and so ignorant are judges of this phase 
of the mind that they often turn to the witnesses and severely 
rebuke them for contradicting themselves. Reputable citizens are 
compelled to submit to insult, browbeating and chicanery from 
lawyers who are unfit to be received in the plain homes of our land; 
they are tricked into wrong answers by misleading and foxy ques- 
tions; they are denied the right of' continuous reply under cross- 
examination, being required to answer parts of things to suit the 
whims of attorneys, whose low animal cunning is palmed off as 
the current coin of ability; and thus hemmed in between a 



REALM OF TEE ESTATE OF HELL 173 

to tell the truth, a wish to obey the court, and a contempt for the 
lawyer who is nagging them, the most honest witnesses are led to 
say things in one breath and to deny them in another. When 
cases are tried and adjudged in a business-like manner and under 
the rules that would govern the settling of mercantile affairs, then 
the courts will be held in respect by the public. It is to the shame 
of the supposed system of American justice that nine cases out of 
every ten, ninety out of a hundred, nine hundred out of a thousand, 
are disposed of on technical grounds called law, wherein* honesty 
is dwarfed or ignored. A board of directors of any institution, even 
one that involves millions of dollars, will satisfactorily transact 
an enormous amount of business in three hours, whereas courts of 
supposed justice, ignoring business principles, and sneering at com- 
mon sense, will drag a fifty-dollar suit for three years. The un- 
certainty of trials, the petty brains of trickery, the flood of tech- 
nicalities which men called judges childishly administer as evidence 
of wisdom, and the reverse of all rules of honest procedure, have 
made witnesses the target of doubt, stupidity and cheap cunning; 
hence the fact that trials smut and besmirch the reputations of 
honorable men and women through the conditions involved in 
mental lapses, need not excite wonder. The only prevention of this 
deplorable result is in the study of magnetism, as was seen in the 
perfect mastery that Henry Ward Beecher, during weeks of cross- 
examination, maintained over Judge Fullerton, who took rank as 
one of the most skilful and adroit examiners of his era. Never for 
a moment did that splendid genius of magnetism relax control over 
his would-be tormenter. It was the battle of giants, with but one 
victor. 

So much distress and suffering are the consequences of 
lapses that life cannot be considered secure with one who is subject 
to them. Compromising bits of conduct, answers not intended, 
consents, agreements, contracts and transactions that involve irre- 
parable loss, are due to lapses. Many an old man, skilled in busi- 
ness matters by years of experience, has lost all the savings, all the 
wealth of a lifetime of accumulation, because, in some lapse of 
mind, he has sanctioned some foolhardy undertaking, or entered 
in a losing arrangement. In such ways old men are ruined. When 
asked why they made the errors, they reply that they do not know. 



174 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

1 436 1 

Superstition destroys mental magnetism. 

This is the 436th Ealston Principle: This is a fertile and 
abundantly fruitful subject for discussion; but, being so well under- 
stood by the public, very little need be said at this place. When 
life was not worth living, persons looked for death from almost any 
source; and, in some of the centuries, when better things should 
have been expected, very few died natural deaths. Mystery, uncer- 
tainty, violence and ignorance made a quartet that caused humanity 
to dance attendance on every kind of fear and apprehension. 

Natural phenomena puzzled the minds of all until 
science came in with her rational explanations; noises of rumbling 
thunder-clouds far away, or of unusual heavings of the ocean, were 
taken as sounds of approaching earthquakes, causing the utmost 
fright; the howling of the dog within a year after somebody had 
died was the forewarner of another death within the same com- 
munity during the coming year, especially if the locality was 
thickly settled; the blood-red sky told of war in any degree of 
horror that the rich coloring depicted by its depth of hue, and the 
same was fulfilled in such periods as those when England enter- 
tained the conflicting hordes who called themselves the champions 
of the roses; the presence of the black cat causes cold shivers to 
trace themselves up and clown the spinal column, because this 
visitor brought evil, and his going away was the harbinger of luck; 
and so on, through a hundred thousand volumes of description, we 
might proceed to unfold the vagaries of those dark centuries. 

That superstition is the master of most men and 
women in this day of enlightenment is too apparent to be denied. 
Few are exempt from its hypnotic influences, despite the soft denial 
of the fact. Look at any person whose mind passes into a lapse, and 
you will find one who is highly superstitious. Brooding over the 
latter will cause the former; and by this means a person may be- 
come self -hypnotized; for fear, monotony of thought, and brooding 
tend to develop negative magnetism. Superstitious business men 
sooner or later go under. In their affairs the keenest judgment is 
often called for, and transactions that require action one way or the 
other, involving mental decisions based on a careful weighing of the 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF HE J J. 175 

prospects of success, arc guided by the cheap claptrap of super- 
stition. 

When placed in the balance the element of chance or 
luck takes precedence of judgment. A splendid opportunity for 
securing property, or of trading in some way, is allowed to go by 
because the day is Friday, or may be the thirteenth of the month. 
Actors religiously avoid managerial officers on Friday and Satur- 
day, and crowd them on the first days of the week; it is no longer 
fear that deters them, from signing contracts on unlucky days; it is 
a settled business habit, just as fixed in its nature as the path of a 
lamb around a certain stump. Young men in business often "toss 
up" in deciding what to do when in doubt, although- they would 
soon learn that judgment is a good guide if they would train it to 
ad for them, and they oftener allow some bit of superstition to con- 
trol their action. 

The belief in a thousand and one details of daily conduct 
hampers the life of many a well endowed man and woman. The 
fear that to do a certain act, or at a certain time, or in a certain 
way, will invite maladies or disasters, is like a weight of lead about 
the neck, strangling the breath, and hindering all attempts at prog- 
ress. A woman sums up well when she says: "A fool told me 
that to walk under a ladder meant death sure within the year. I 
discovered, alas! too late, that I walked under a ladder one morn- 
ing, and for twelve months I was useless in my family, in my duties 
and in my studies. I was in a state of weakness all the time.. When 
the year was ended I was relieved, and you may be sure that I gave 
that fool a piece of my mind for the suffering she had caused me." 
This brief letter is a concise presentation of the case. 

The ablest business men and the most successful per- 
sons of either sex have openly and fully defied the claims of super- 
stition. A Now York merchant opened his store for the first time 
on a Friday, another on the thirteenth of a month, and Daniel 
Frohman postponed the opening day of one of his most successful 
plays from the eleventh to the thirteenth day, in order to challenge 
superstition; and all these enterprises were eminently prosperous. 
The true man need not go out of his way, either to challenge or to 
avoid the claims of superstition, unless he wishes to test their 
stupidity. 

There can be no magnetism of durable quality where 
there is a belief in any superstition, even one. Such belief forces 



176 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

the acts of the persons out of the direct line of good judgment, and 
destroys some part of the freedom of the will. If a single one of 
the many notions now prevalent can be accepted as having weight, 
others will follow; for any hypnotic habit grows rapidly. "Proof 
positive," so-called, that these notions have proved true, is non- 
sense sheer arid simple. The weight of fear, based upon some 
apprehension of calamity, may break down the vitality and lead to 
dire consequences; but such result is due to self -hypnotism, in- 
spired by the fear. This point is well illustrated in the invented 
superstition, which was originated some years .ago by three men 
whose purpose was to ascertain if negative magnetism could not be 
induced by mere fear. They asserted that six was a more fatal 
number than thirteen; that if six persons sat down together, one 
would die in a year and all within three years; and each cited cases 
without limit to prove the truth of their claim. This they delivered 
to a selected party of six women, whom they overtook as by acci- 
dent. All were impressed; their belief was captured; they sep- 
arated; one died within the year, the other five went into a decline, 
two more died in a few months, and it was only by the intervention 
of third parties that the others could be rescued from their fear. 
Superstitious belief is hypnotic. It destroys magnetism. 



"/ was a tree within an Indian vale', 

When first 1 heard the Jove-sick night in gale 
Declare his passion ; every leaf teas stirred 

With the melodious sorrow of the bird, 
And when he ceased, the song remained with me. 

Men came anon, and felted the harmless tree, 
But from the memory of the songs I heard, 

The spoiler saved me from the destiny 
Whereby my brethren perished." 



I 



REALM FOUR 




. 



BUT we've (i page, more glowing and more bright, 
Oh which our friendship and our love to write; 
That these mag wcvtr from the soul depart, 
We trust them to the memorg of the heart. 
There Is no dimming, no effacement there, 
Each new pulsation keeps the record clear; 
Warm, golden letters all the tablets fill, 
Nor lose their lustre till the heart stands still." 




1 rje rvsbab^ o i Peac^ 



IN THE 



WHITE SUNLIGHT OF EXISTENCE 



RUT when the moon their hollow lights, 

And they are swept by balms of spring, 
And in their glens, on starry nights, 

The nightingales divinely sing; 
And lovely notes, from shore to shore, 
Across the sounds and channels pour- 
on ! then a longing like despair 

Is to their farthest caverns sent; 
Tor surely once, they feel, we were 

Parts of a single continent! 
Mow round us spreads the watery plain- 
on, might our marges meet again!" 

(177) 



THE WHITE SUNLIGHT 



UAD we no hope 

Indeed beyond the zenith and the slope 

Of yon gray blank of sky, we might be faint 

To muse upon eternity's constraint 
Pound our aspirant souls. But since the scope 
Must widen early, is it well to droop 

Tor a few days consumed in loss and taint? 

O pusillanimous heart, be comforted — 
And like a cheerful traveler, take the road, 

Singing beside the hedge." 



I LEAVE behind me the elm-shadowed square 
And carven portals of the silent street, 
And wander on with listless, vagrant feet 
Through seaward-leading alleys, till the air 

Smells of the sea, and straightway then the care 
Slips from my heart, and life once more is sweet. 
At the lane's ending lie the white-winged fleet. 

O restless rowc^ whither wouldst thou fare? 
Here o\^c brave pinions that shall take thee far- 
Gaunt hulks of Norway; ships of red Ceylon; 

Slim-masted lovers or the blue Azores ! 
Tis but an instant hence to Zanzibar, 
Ov to the regions of the Midnight Sun; 
Ionian isles are thine, and all the fairy shores!" 

(ITS) 






1 rje J^sbab^ o H reac^ 










"A cloud lay cradled near the setting sun, 

A gleam of crimson tinged its braided snow ; 
Long had I watched the glory moving on 

O'er the still radiance of the lake below. 
Tranquil its spirit seemed and floated slow ! 

Even in its very motion there was rest ; 
While every breath of eve that chanced to blow 

Wafted the traveller to the beauteous west. 
Emblem, methought, of the departed soul! 

To whose white robe the gleam of bliss is given, 
And by the breath of mercy made to roll 

Right onward to the golden gates of Heaven, 
Where to the eye of faith it peaceful lies, 

And tells to man his glorious destinies." 



. 




SUCCESS in life, whether in the fields of mind, of busi- 
ness, or of body; whether in the acquisition of knowledge, 
of happiness, of property, or of power, is directly dependent 
upon a sustained elasticity of temperament and the buoy- 
ancy of hope. Fear depresses and handicaps. Courage is needed 
to meet the contingencies of battle; and it must be the full, round 
courage of a broad nature, an unfaltering determination to win all 
honest victories that can possibly be achieved in the range of one's 
powers. 

(179) 









180 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

We are now entering the estate of peace. By this 
we do not mean that we are about to retire from the great battle- 
field of life. On the contrary, we seek to put an end to the warring 
factions that rage in our own selves, to gather the millions of scat- 
tered forces, enlist them all under one grand marshalling, assert 
control over them, and, wielding a united power, lead them on to 
success. The greatest victories are achieved by those armies whose 
purpose is a unit. Man ordinarily is a collection of untamed and 
widely dispersed energies, over which he has never sought, except 
in rare instances, to wield the masters wand. He does not know 
what is meant by the advice to conquer himself, nor is he aware 
of the tremendous forces that are possessed by him, awaiting organ- 
ization and use. 

As may be seen by referring to the preceding realm, 
the chaotic condition of most magnetic persons prevents their use 
of the powers with which they are endowed. They are not at peace 
with themselves. They possess energy enough to wield a great in- 
fluence over the lives of others, and this could very readily be 
turned to magnetism of a positive character; but they feel too 
much the impulsive force of this energy, as though it were leading 
them always astray. They must have excitement. A day of rest, 
an hour of recuperation is to them a dull period; the tour is slow; 
life is not worth living, unless they can be always on the go; and 
thus their vitality runs wild and wastes itself. 

There are two classes of persons who enjoy peace 
within themself; one is that large division of mankind who are 
almost devoid of magnetism; the other is a rather small portion, 
who possess positive powers of magnetism, which they control. The 
former do not always get peace, for it seems that when they are in 
a struggle to shake off the weight of influence from outside, that 
crushes them always to earth, they are in the agonies of suffering. 
The lower strata of men and women, those who are utterly devoid 
of magnetism, are the dullest and most stupid of humanity. They 
are always poor, and are not wide enough awake to wonder at it. 
They labor and toil on, willing to be led or driven, and are molded 
by the influences of others. You see them in the lowest classes of 
contented workmen and women. 

Give to the under folks any magnetism, even if it is far 
below the line where the positive force begins, and then the torment 
is inaugurated. Then commences the strua-o-le to arise out of the 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF PEACE 181 

humble estate into one toward which the finger of ambition points 
the way. Discontent with present conditions, coupled with the 
handicap that checks progress, indicates such magnetic qualities as, 
when free, will revolutionize the life that seeks to better itself. Out 
of their rank have come all, or nearly all, of the supreme mind3 
and courageous leaders of the world. The roll of fame is crowded 
full of names taken from humble conditions and forced to the front 
by inherent energy. It is not true that all who are discontented 
rise to higher planes of life; most of them might, if they knew how 
to marshal the powers they possess; but about one in ten thousand 
makes up the mind to go ahead, and then goes ahead. Resolute 
will never fails; it carries its owner to the loftiest plane of success, 
no matter how low may be the estate out of which he is taken. 

Conflicting emotions, restlessness and discontent, if 
they are aimed at the lowly condition of unsuccess, if they complain 
of the meaner stratum in which they are compelled to exist, if they 
scorn the past and look always to the future, seeking an upward 
course tq better opportunities, these are sure indications of a devel- 
oping and growing magnetism. Yet they force their possessors 
to live in confusion; there is no peace; the energies are not mas- 
tered, and it is to them that this course of training will come with 
tremendous force, leading them up out of their vale of conflict. Of 
such persons about one in ten thousand rises by sheer power of 
resolution, shaping their destiny by the genius of an undaunted 
will. Let us see if more than one in that number can be helped. 

We will leave the hopelessly stupid class to themselves. 
As has been said, they include the humblest of toilers, those who 
seem contented with food, clothing and shelter. A very small pro- 
portion of the richer or higher social classes may be said to belong 
to this rank; they are the sons or daughters of wealth, who are not 
full-witted, who are unable to think for themselves, and for whom 
the courts appoint guardians. It is always true that any such 
person may be wonderfully assisted in overcoming such negative 
conditions if once they may be made to take an interest in the study 
and training of magnetism. They rarely care for self-improve- 
ment, however. 

The most numerous class of persons who are subject to 
conflict within themselves are not those who are discontented with 
their present rank and are always looking up, but those who are 
discontented with everything, and are looking down. Let us fully 



182 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

understand the distinction between the two. Both possess mag- 
netism that might be made positive if the energies within were 
brought into peace. The first class is on the rising path, with 
magnetism increasing and the positive vitality coming to them, if 
they are able to control themselves; and from their ranks come the 
greatest men and women. They are in conflict with their condi- 
tions, but are looking up to some higher hope. The other class 
consists of those who are already endowed with positive magnetism, 
or who have had it; but, being unable to marshal these forces, and 
to control their use, they have allowed themselves to come imder 
their sway. They are nervous, excitable, irritable, restless, and 
always at war within themselves. They are beings run away with 
by splendid forces which they do not choose, or cannot acquire the 
energy, to control. 

Out of such class come the greatest sufferers. They con- 
stitute those of whom we wrote in the preceding realm of this study. 
It is not easy to know that you are equipped for the best heritage 
of earth; that in mental endowments, or in the possibility of acquir- 
ing them, you take rank with the first classes of mankind; that you 
were intended by nature for a position far above that which you 
occupy; that you realize that there are within you the magnificent 
forces on which you should ride to the grandest success; yet that 
all is conflict, confusion and waste. Your magnetism, once posi- 
tive, is now chaos. You see no longer the outlines of that highway 
over which you had hoped to travel many years ago. All within is 
at war; you are restless. 

From this class you must take the speediest departure 
possible. It is the realm of distraction. You are already irritable. 
Many a man and woman has acquired in this incipient malady the 
seeds of mental breakdown, of the direst disaster. You are given 
to worrying; this engenders unhappiness. Misery is about you, 
colored by the hue of your own orbs. Eestless in quietude; reading 
anything and everything to keep down the stormy conflict; seeking 
something new to satisfy your unquenchable thirst; arising in the 
morning without taste for the day's duties; going to bed at night, 
unhappy because the day has been wasted; this routine of half 
misery and hectic pleasures is taking you down grade very rapidly. 
It is hoped that you do not belong to the class we have described. 
If you do, turn about; marshal your distracted and warring forces, 
and transform defeat into victory. We will help you. More than 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF PEACE 183 

that, we will guarantee to you the highest rewards of absolute 

success, from no other source than in the very pages of the present 
volume. 

You should first ascertain if you belong to this class. 
Remember they are the restless persons who have had, or may have, 
some positive magnetism, which is running to waste. It is a dan- 
gerous class, for the reason that its end is generally disastrous. The 
excitement that brings no satisfaction; the unrest that knows no 
peace; these are fast sapping the vitality of heart and brain and 
nerves. It is a hard class to get out of. You cannot leave it as 
easily as you think. But it is necessary that you shake all such 
entanglements out of your life if you ever wish to find solid happi- 
ness on earth. Therefore you should talk honestly with yourself, 
and decide whether or no you belong to this class. 

Your chances are better if you are in the discontented 
underling rank, for that has been the training school of greatness 
from time immemorial. By underling is not necessarily meant that 
you are poor, but that your positive magnetic forces are yet in pro- 
cess of formation. In the other class you may have now, or have 
had at some previous time, such vitality; but it has gone to waste; 
or, being without mastery, it is on the wane; and to retrace your 
course is like backing up hill with a team of unruly horses. In the 
discontented underling class you feel the impulse of unborn ener- 
gies, which need an intelligent head to lead them on. From the 
standpoint of a conceited imagination this class is the least desir- 
able of all to be found in, but from the better viewpoint of the 
chances of progress, and the attainment of success, it is by far the 
best class. If you are in it, all you need is the guiding help of 
such a course of training as this book furnishes in order to help you 
to rise in the world. 

We now see four classes spread out before us in the 
field of our study and examination. Highest above all is that 
which contains the few but the great men and women, not always 
famous, but powerful in their influences over the rest of mankind ; 
and this is the magnetic class. Next in rank are the discontented 
underlings, whose fate it seems to have been these many centuries 
to send about one in every ten thousand of their number into the 
higher class through the operation of magnetism acquired by 
energy of will and an unfaltering determination of purpose. Third 
in order are the restless, chaotic individuals, who are partly success- 



184 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

ful in life, who take rank, socially, perhaps above some of the 
others, but whose magnetism, being uncontrolled, is running to 
waste. Finally, at the bottom of the scale, are the stupid, contented 
classes, who have no magnetism of a positive character, who never 
had and never will; they serve the other strata of humanity. 

To which one of these four classes do you belong? 
It is perhaps of some importance to settle in your own mind this 
problem; for your method of procedure may be somewhat varied 
by the answer. More will be said of this later on. It is our duty, 
at the present juncture, to go directly to work upon the course of 
training, which is now at hand. Avoid superficial reading and 
skimming practice. Get down deep into the theme, and make it 
the most important duty of life for the time being. It masters 
everything else; it leads to all the success you may ever achieve; 
and why should it not receive the highest recognition in this world? 

8 437 I 

Normal consciousness is normal magnetism. 

This is the 437th Ralston Principle. It is perhaps a somewhat 
technical proposition, but may be made clear by a little explanation. 
The word, consciousness, means the power of the faculties to rec- 
ognize conditions, impressions, ideas, thoughts and transactions. 
Here we see the clearness of that force in life which is known as in- 
telligence. Some persons retain more than others, but it may be 
merely the bulk of accumulation in the memory, most of which 
would do as much good as the shelf in books. Worms of that class 
are stupefied by the weight of facts they have never absorbed, and 
are not magnetic. 

The wisest man is not he who has stored away the 
greatest number of facts in his memory, but he who recognizes the 
most of what is going on about him, and is able to turn the largest 
proportion of it to his account. The book-worm wriggles among 
people day in and day out, or walks amid the sumptuous wealth of 
nature, seeing nothing, hearing nothing, feeling nothing, appreciat- 
ing nothing, because he is groping in his brain among the number- 
less facts that are jammed into it like shoestrings in a valise; the 
brooks run on in merrv laughter: the birds sins: their melodies of 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF PEACE 185 

glee and plaint; the trees rock to and fro on the cradle of the breeze, 
swaying in lullabies to the times that mother earth first sang when 
she hushed her children to their primeval rest; the clouds float by 
like argosies in seas of blue; the sublime painter of earth and sky 
outspreads before the gaze the richest colorings that ever sprang 
from the soul of genius; yet this wise mortal is blind and deaf 
to it all. 

In every day's experience there are thousands of details 
transpiring, out of which a little at least may be drawn into one's 
life and absorbed into one's being. The individual who does not 
recognize this is poor indeed. Counted wise, he is ignorant. His 
consciousness is not active. He may be a member of the lowest 
stratum of humanity, contented and void of all positive magnetism. 
The meaning of consciousness, then, is the power of recognizing 
life in and out of self. It cannot be disassociated from magnetism, 
for it is dependent upon this force. Normal consciousness is normal 
magnetism. It is the dividing line between negative and positive 
magnetism. Below this line there comes the possibility of lapses 
and hypnotic control; above it, the possibility of self-mastery, the 
marshalling of the forces of life, success and peace. When you are 
below the normal plane of consciousness, or clear recognition of life 
in and about you, then you are on the negative side of magnetism; 
when you are above such normal plane, you are on the positive side. 

4 9 

$ 438 1 

Life is a mass of energies. 

This is the 438th Ralston Principle. These energies are so 
numerous and so powerful, each in itself, that it is difficult to keep 
an account of them or their operations. They seem to permeate 
the body from head to foot. The physical forces are of all kinds, 
capable of executing great deeds of prowess or small details of the 
most delicate fineness. They cannot be studied without exciting 
admiration and wonder. Nothing more amazing is known in this 
line of miracle, when subjected to analysis, than the varied ability 
of the muscles to throw a missile of any weight to any distance 
within a given range. For an engine to do this, or a cannon to hurl 
its projectile, there must be the summary of brain-power in direct- 



186 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

ing the details, the adjustment of the quantity and force of the 
power, the resistance of the machine, the angle of elevation, the 
observation of distance, and a long prior investigation of the laws 
by which each may be instantly controlled. Man, if new upon the 
earth to-day, would require centuries to accomplish so much: yet, 
in his own muscular energy, he soon reaches such end. This is 
but one of a million uses of the power that is lodged within the 
body. 

Then the energies of the nervous system are still 
more amazing. They run the longest gamuts, from the daintiest 
and most exquisite impressions to those wild bursts of power that 
the actors of the heroic stage have so often loved to imitate. The 
varieties of nervous force are multitudinous. It is true that they 
sway the muscles, but they are always lost in muscular exuberance 
when the nerves are not in full command. They have a power that 
is not seen at all times, a reserve energy that compels the body to 
do work the extent of which defies all the computed rules of i 
penditure. That they are too often weak is a fact that should not 
be tolerated while man is able to give them training. Behind the 
emotions and passions, back of the voice, the heart and all expr 
sion of the faculties, the nervous sys m stands ready to enhance or 
belittle their uses, as its own condition may be weak or stro: 

There are multiplied and complex • the 

mind, so many, indeed, that they arc beyond compu^i It 

would be needless to attempt their classification in this place. The 
mind has five channels of communication with the world, thi 
which it receives and sends those impress - that in- 

telligent existence. Each of these channels repr< Id of 

power to and from which it continually run-. Sight 3 all 

others, and it value is so great that the gr< -hare of life g 

out with it. By its operation there may he communicated to the 
life of man much that affects it in numberless directions; that 
which appals, pleases, uplifts or destroys; that which edhcat 3, 
conceals, deceives or reveals; that which stimulates to love or 
hate, transforms the soul or dethrones the reason; in fact, tli 
no limit to the scope of the mind's energies as ail- by this one 

channel alone. Then the other senses play their pan- ad 

them are realms of invention, fancy, contemplation, and hnndn - 
else. All these are living, powerful energies belonging to the con- 
scious mind. In addition to that sphere of thought, the hidden 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF PEACE 187 

sub-conscious faculty deals in its own magic, to solve which the 
philosopher would sacrifice all his other glories. 

The fourth world of energies is that of the soul, that 
moral force that is kept in the background in the majority of lives. 
It concerns itself with the life that follows death. What it is, and 
what its divisions are, may be ascertained in the volume of the 
nineteenth degree of this series. The many varieties of energies 
of which it is composed are less understood because they are not 
usually brought to the front, are not dissected in the analysis of 
life, and do not obtain the culture in this existence that is best 
calculated to develop them. If the soul lives at all, it is a complex 
and fully endowed being; not a mass of spirit essence, but an em- 
bodiment of character, energy, intelligence and executive ability. 
All this seems foreign to you, perhaps, as you never have thought 
of the soul apart from the mind. To you the two seem inseparable; 
for when sleep or unconsciousness overwhelm the faculties, you 
have no sensation of the soul that might indicate its presence or 
existence. 

i 439 « 



Left to nature, all energies are at war and in con- 
fusion. 

This is the 439th Ealston Principle. It may be asked, why 
nature produces war and confusion. She has always done that. 
When she supplies the forces that work out the ends of existence, 
all is not done. We trimmed a grape vine to-day. It was in a 
fearful tangle. The fruit was well set, but the tendrils were chok- 
ing its growth. The branches that should have been pinched back 
to a few leaves, had fallen down toward the ground, and were wind- 
ing themselves around the trunk, three in a snare, or else were 
becoming inextricably confused with other parts. A man who had 
a vineyard that was neglected year after year, received no fruit 
whatever; his neighbor, who gave constant and skilful care to his 
vines, plucked large and luscious bunches year in and year out. 

Nature furnishes impulses, God gives them a few laws 
to avoid destruction or extermination, and man's duty is to train 
these impulses under such laws. Left entirely to nature, man 
himself would become a hapless savage. Deprived entirely of 






188 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

nature, he would be a sickly model, devoid of life. The wild grape, 
like the wild cherry, is too sour and crude for use; fed on the im- 
pulses of nature, it becomes a beautiful product of culture under 
the guiding hand of man; made apart from these impulses, it must 
be a thing of artifice, constructed of wood, and painted in imitation 
of that which is genuine. 

All these things are true of those energies which consti- 
tute human life. The fixed routine of functional existence follows 
the same laws, whether in vegetation or in the animal species, as 
of blood circulation, breathing and digestion; and around these 
three chief operations all the common faculties of plant and body 
find their divergence, in which they reproduce the sum total of 
ancestral traits. Without a direct intelligence to guide them they 
grow wildly; they run to waste, and suffer much in so doing. It 
would seem that nature is exceedingly cruel in all directions, were 
she responsible for the anguish that is endured on her account. 
Her children are born in pain, and die in pain. The short lives of 
birds, animals and fish that become the prey of others are too brief 
to serve any use; yet there is less suffering in being devoured than 
in being left to die from age. Follow any animal you will, in your 
mind at least, and note the long days and weeks of pain in the 
forest during that struggle which precedes death from starvation. 

We see the birds about us and envy them their happy 
freedom, but we never inquire what becomes of them. Youth is 
full of play and cheerful glee in the merry efforts to use their wings 
from tree to tree; but age is oue long waiting for death through 
the processes of slow starvation. There is no palatial couch on 
which the king of the jungle lays himself down to final rest amid 
the soothing attentions of love or the anaesthetics of science; when 
he can no longer roam at will for food, when the bones are stiff 
with age, the blood thin with lack of nutrition, and all the impulses 
of that once noble frame are smothered in decrepitude, he is a 
thing of dependence on the meagre charity of his consorts, a totter- 
ing temple of despair; and, against the driveling out of life in the 
months that must follow, the speeding bullet of the hunter is an 
act of mercy. 

We may praise nature all we will, for she is grand ; 
but she is helpless. Long eras passed while she waited for the 
coming of man to take charge of her runaway forces. So, in the 
body of man himself, there are these millions of energies running 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF PEACE 189 

to waste; engines that hav6 no equa] in power for their size; wii 
that carry enormous loads of vitality; a heart whose eipenditi 
of force is far in excess of all calculations in the world of mechanic 
a brain that originates and propels volumes of power, and eountli 
others, large and small. Behind every faculty there are millions 
of infinitesimal forces, whose collective vitality has enormous power. 
Except in the performance of the vegetable functions of breathii 
circulation and respiration, all this energy runs to waste in the 
ordinary life; yes, in the extraordinary life, a large share of the 
time. Few and rare are the men and women who are able to 
assume mastery over them. Some claim to possess the genius of 
generalship at once, off-hand, without knowledge of the arm 
placed under their command, and without cognizance of the goal 
toward which they are tending. As well might a raw recruit be 
given charge of the great armies of the nation. 

I 440 ■ I 

■ 

Peace dispels confusion. 

This is the 440th Ealston Principle. By peace is meant the 
cessation of internal war, as has been previously stated. This 
quietude is the earliest step in the story of self-command. We do 
not fall back upon the old homily, that he who is able to conquer 
himself is greater than he who taketh a city. That is good enough. 
But our simile is closer to the facts in the case. To conquer on 
self implies that one's own life is at war with its head, or its brain. 
This is the equal of saying to Wellington: "You are at the head 
of the flower of the English army. This army is at variance with 
you; it is your enemy, and should be your friend; go ahead, conquer 
your own army, and then strike for the enemies of your country." 
This sounds well. 

On the other hand it would have been closer to the true 
facts to have said to a general, whose soldiers were in the same 
relative condition as those of man as a human being: "You are at 
the head of millions of the best fighters a commander ever saw. 
These fighters are not waging Avar against your outside enemy, nor 
against you, for your existence is the sum total of theirs; bul they 
arc in confusion. Some of them are fighting among themselvi 



190 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

some are at a standstill, not knowing which way to go, what to do, 
or why they have being at all; others are on the run, racing at 
hazard, without guide, and expending all their energies for 
naught." Now, it is not true that man must first conquer himself 
in the sense that the general must either whip or subdue his own 
individuality, or in the sense that he must march in victory against 
his supporting army; but it may be said to be true that he must 
assert his authority, and hold his fighters in subjection to his will. 
So much is certain. Peace in the ranks, the end of dis- 
sensions; the checking of retreat or runaways; the abolition of all 
the influences that breed confusion; these are the first essentials of 
conquest. But it is not to be a conquest of self. "We teach mastery 
as a quality of grandeur; we do not teach humility. Alan must rise 
and tower above his own forces, as did Caesar and Alexander; and, 
with obedient followers, he should make his conquests felt abroad. 
Peace comes from a desire to have peace. It does not require 
much more than knowledge, in a case of this kind, to bring about 
the results which are really sought. Life is motion. Along the 
complicated highways, if we knew the road that we ought to take, 
it requires no greater effort to march that way than any other. We 
cite this illustration as evidence of the ease with which a person 
may change plans and purposes, and thereby reach goals quite 
opposite from those at first sought; so wonderful a power is knowl- 
edge. Training the vine is less trouble than unsnarling its tangled 
growth; it is more quickly done, and the fruitage is better beyond 
all comparison. 



1 



1 *« I 

SL s 



The mere reading of magnetic thoughts may change 
the whole current of life. 

This is the 441st Ralston Principle. Here is the pivotal point 
of culture. A man has attended a lecture: he does nothing but 
listen; he catches bits of information which are new to him; the 
manner of delivery may have been inspiring, and the language 
elevating; but the facts are the things that he takes away. That 
night he falls asleep amid his ponderings over the new ideas: in 
the morning he awakes, and is still delving into the possibilities 
that open up to him in new avenues of progress: during the day 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF PEACE 191 

they linger about his work, his duties, his other thoughts; and so 
on, for weeks and months, they continue to impress him. He is 
a changed man. 

We walk one road or another ; or, to take the water for 
our .means of illustration, we sail in one current or another, in one 
path through the ocean to a certain port, or otherwise if we seek 
another harbor. The captain who steers his prow toward the north 
coast of Ireland, might have gone as easily to the English Channel 
or to the Canaries; it was merely the combination of knowledge and 
purpose. The energies of the boat, its machinery, furnace, engine 
and steering apparatus obey his command as well when making one 
port as another. The sailing vessel is the creature of other in- 
fluences than its own; it must yield to the whims of wind and 
storm; man of negative magnetism is buffeted about, but when his 
power is positive, the engines that propel his course are all within 
him, and are subject to his will. Then knowledge of the true way, 
and a purpose to pursue, are his chief agents of success. 

So much for our illustration. The same law holds true 
as to the effect of reading as of hearing. Fine efforts do in fact 
dress things well; but after all the mariner of life needs facts. We 
must be dreadfully in earnest. The captain astray on the high 
seas, whose compass is broken, and who has no means of making 
his calculations; or who, being cast a long distance out of his course, 
finds himself in waters that are unknown, needs information; he 
asks the coming voyager for knowledge; facts, and nothing but 
facts, will serve him. There is coal enough to -make port; the 
machinery is intact; the engines work splendidly; the ship steers 
aright, but the pathway of the ocean has been lost, and a friendly 
craft is sighted. Now the captain is in a position to obtain the 
needed guidance. He is after knowledge. Do you think he cares 
for a flowery display of rhetoric, for fine language, for the dress 
and garniture of words? /Does he need exalted, lofty, inspiring 
description? No. He wishes plain facts. 

There is often a vast amount of magnetism in a fact that 
comes at the right moment in the juncture between \ictory and 
defeat. Napoleon lost Waterloo because the Prussian army was 
. allowed to join Wellington. He had the latter well under defeat, 
and saw the star of destiny rising over the horizon, when B Richer 
broke through the forests 'and came to the rescue of the English. 
Grouchy took the wrong road. With French forces enough at his 



192 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

command, he went out to meet the Prussians. At the juncture of 
two roads he was in doubt whether to take that to the right or 
that to the left. Had the knowledge been vouchsafed him, a single 
word, teeming with magnetism, would have changed the destinies 
of Europe. Display, style, ornaments of 'speech, elaboration of 
delivery, all pale before the power of the word that carries the 
precious freight of a fact. 

You ask how mere information will change the current 
of your life. It may or may not. Much of the knowledge of the 
world is incidental to the main progress of existence. Advice is 
so little followed that its giving is a luxurious waste. The minister 
who hammers away week after week in volumes of advice and 
censure, does not see any change in the faces or in the lives of his 
congregation; they come Sunday after Sunday, with that same 
patient, half-stupid, all-enduring meekness that bears the stamp of 
duty. They have read the deluge of mind in the Sunday paper; 
they have broken off rather suddenly in the midst of some foul 
sensation, and they come to church for grace with an ill grace. 
Advice never did much good. "Your sermon was so inspiring," 
said the grocer at noon; and on Monday morning he put the same 
proportion of sand in his sugar. 

There is an immense distinction between the promulga- 
tion of a fact that gives direction to the main course of life and 
the offering of advice that affects only the incidentals. A preacher 
who had told his congregation how to live so as to have clean hearts, 
found that they one and all regarded the advice as first-class, but 
as belonging to their neighbors; thus A thought B needed it; B 
thought A needed it, and so on. One Sunday he told them all 
that they might make a thousand dollars apiece, for a certain 
wealthy philanthropist offered that reward to each man, woman 
and child in that church who would read the Bible through in a 
year, and who told no untruth, nor spoke an unkind word in a 
twelvemonth. That afternoon the dusty volumes were unshelved; 
next morning orders by telephone were Flashing over the wires for 
Bibles at once, and on the following Sabbath inflamed eyes and 
sweet smiles greeted him from a packed auditorium. The acquisi- 
tion of a thousand dollars affected the progress along the main 
course of life, as every person knows; the getting of a clean heart 
was a matter that had no reference to the struo-ole for an existence, 
and could wait awhile. 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF PEACE 193 

The same thing is true of advice that affects health. 
Persons must have confidence m its efficacy, and must also Heel sure 
that their carelessness in living has not yet reached the limit of 
their vitality; it is only to save themselves from death, from a costly 

sickness or from severe pain, that they will accept any advice even 
if it is fully credited and known to be efficacious. Such is human 
nature. The reason of this is in the fact that ordinary ill-health 
and its cure are incidentals in the journey of life. The course of 
travel is not an incidental. There are four such courses; all main 
highways. One is the hypnotic, which is pursued by the contented 
underlings; they are the masses over whom the capable classes rise; 
and were it not for such masses, there would be no means of ascent. 
The traveler w r ho sat on the peak of a lofty mountain thanked the 
ground for supporting the mountain; he thanked the base for sup- 
porting the upper part; he thanked the breast for supporting the 
top; he thanked the top for supporting him. 

The second class comprises those who are struggling 
along the highway of discontented subjection. They will release 
one in ten thousand from their number, and he will ascend to the 
top of the grandest eminence. The others will follow agitators 
self-chosen from their own ranks; they will furnish the great fault- 
finding hordes that vote one way at one election, and another way 
at the next, always tearing down without hope of building. From 
this subjected but discontented class there come out master minds 
year after year as intelligence is acquired to help them; and they 
are the best candidates for the study of magnetism. The third 
highway is lined with those who have started well, but whose 
armies are in confusion. The fourth is the finer and more sparsely 
occupied road over which travel men and women who control their 
energies and are magnetic. "We may add recruits from the other 
three ranks, and uplift all four. 

Thus is it seen that magnetism affects the main course 
of life. To those who are determined to rise the offer of knowledge 
is a training influence in itself. More than one # ambitious person 
has said, "I have awaited some guiding principles to help me. I 
know now what I am and what I may become." "We have seen 
lives completely changed by nothing but a course of reading, or 
a course of instruction, consisting, not of advice as to what to do. 
but of information where to go. The sign-board tells where a cer- 
tain journey will end, but offers no advice or suggestion as to the 






194 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

propriety of going there or elsewhere. When a man enters upon 
a certain highway, having at its termination the goal he seeks, he 
proceeds along that course, and adapts himself to its conditions 
and circumstances. 

While there are other and perhaps more decisive methods 
of training in magnetism than the furnishing of knowledge as to 
what road to travel, there is none more important or effective than 
that which presents the facts that lead to such information. Few 
books, indeed, are helpful; they contain too much verbiage for the 
slight amount of solid knowledge. Principles are always an advan- 
tage, for they present laws, and laws are fixed rules founded in the 
impulses of nature and the modes of giving them guidance. Xo 
man can read them without finding himself already leaving the 
wrong road and seeking the right one. A few principles in a 
lecture, in a lesson, in a book, have swung individuals around, 
changing forever the currents of their existence. This we have 
known over and over again among students of this science. 

^ g 

£ 442 | 

SL * 

The union of the wasting energies of the body cre- 
ates great magnetism. 

This is the 442d Ralston Principle. The laws that precede 
this should be re-read until they are understood. From their read- 
ing and absorption, there will come the desire, then the determina- 
tion, to enter upon the right road. These are important influences, 
and they cannot be lightly regarded. We have seen that the con- 
fusion that arises from the discordant and warring forces within 
the body should be brought into a state of peace. That this will 
be done, we believe there is no doubt. 

Peace alone is not enough. The general w ho unities his 
untrained troops has done something toward preparing for con- 
quest, but not all. Their confusion ceases: they are no longer in 
conflict among themselves, but they may yet be a disintegrated 
mass, whose parts are not trained to work together. The estates 
and dominions that are contiguous in a country may cease to war 
with each other; but. like the German Empire, they may do more: 
they may form a union for offence and defence, a cemented nation 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF PEACE 195 

composed of smaller peoples, each potent in its own forces, but 
mighty in its joining. 

The way in which this union should be brought about is 
a mall it of the highest interest. There are always various sugges- 
tions that may he offered in most any subject of importance; and 
la-re we find it easier to treat this line of study in such off-hand 
manner than to deal more seriously with it; yet the full responsi- 
bility must be met. We know that a man who can achieve so 
much as to quell the confusion within him is already a monarch in 
his own realm; and we are sure that few there are who are strong 
enough in will-power, in purpose, in iron resolve and solid deter- 
mination to command their own being, for it is the most wonder- 
fully constructed and the most magnificently equipped temple in 
the whole realm of creation. He who maintains harmony in such 
an arra}r, who is its acknowledged head, and who is able to lead 
it to victory, is a king indeed. 

These remarks lead us naturally to the method which 
we propose to adopt, after having given it thorough trial in a wide 
range of cases during more than a quarter of a century. While at 
first it may seem as if the plan is not directly concerned in the 
cultivation of magnetism, a lew weeks of trial will convince you to 
the contrary. It must be remembered that those persons who are 
said to be naturally gifted, in the possession and use of these powers 
have come by them through methods of living that have tended 
toward such development. They know no exercises. This part of 
the process of culture is fully as important as any that may be 
associated with practice. 

A self-pledge has far more value than any specific 
action, for it involves the use of all the powers of the body, even 
the common drift of nutrition, and turns them into any desired 
channel if the intent of the obligation is fully observed. Three 
men start out to acquire the arts of magnetism. One thinks about 
it, sees the needs of the body, the mind and nerves, notes their 
wasting of energies, and his good sense tells him that no life can 
run itself without intelligent guide. He finds that he is a machine, 
a furnace, an engine, a boiler, a storage battery, an electrical 
dynamo, a full strung system of live wires, and that all this won- 
derful display of mechanical invention has an engineer, the brain, 
that knows not one thing about running it. He thinks this over, 
and all the while his good judgment, his fund of sense, is uncon- 



196 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

sciously throwing an influence over his daily career, and he may 
truly boast that he never took a lesson in magnetism in all his life, 
although he is giving himself the best of lessons. 

The question is often asked why some men and women 
are so cultured in this attainment, while others are deficient; and 
it is said of them that they are endowed by nature. There is no 
such thing as endowment by nature. A quality, a talent, a gift, 
or any advantage may come down from former generations, but 
they do not arise out of the ground where nature had its birth, 
If you are more refined than other persons, it is because you have 
lived where there is less roughness, or you have decided not to live 
as roughly as others, or your parents or ancestors have so lived, 
and their tendency has not been thwarted in your life. This is 
true of anything that is called an acquisition or a gift. 

Magnetic persons who never practiced or studied the 
subject are sometimes those* who have inherited the manner from 
their predecessors, but the latter have come by it through proper 
living of their own or of those whose blood flows in their veins. 
In no case is it a clear gift out of the bosom of nature. The three 
men, of whom we have made mention, .-tart out to acquire this art. 
The first, as we have said, finds what a wonderful piece of work 
he is; is surprised that it is without engineer or manager, and is 
soon under the influence of this thought. He lives with it night 
and day; it goes with him in his work, in his pleasure, in his 
moments of idleness, just a thought; yet lie cannot escape its in- 
fluence. Soon he finds himself advancing along a highway that is 
new to him, and he wonders what has brought about the change. 
To his surprise, he believes a thought has turned the key of a 
greater life, and he begins to examine that matter, to see if his 
belief is well founded. 



" Yet while he stood and kiu\c not what to do. 
With yea ruing, a strange thrill of hope there eame. 
tA shaft of new desire now pierced him through, 
<And therewithal a soft voice called his not 
*And when he turned, with eager eves aflame. 
He saw betwixt him and the setting sun 
The lively image of his hoed one." 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF PEACE 197 

§ flf 

«i 443 I 

A magnetic thought is an operation of the mind 
that influences matter. 

This is the 443d Kalston Principle. It is hardly necessary to 
repeat what all persons may easily ascertain, to be a well-established 
fact. Out of a million thoughts, perhaps one may be magnetic; 
if it is, and you are affected by it, your life, your body itself, will 
be influenced by its power. This is not in any way connected with 
telepathy; nor with any phase of mental science; nor has it any 
occult value. It is a plain, simple, easy proposition; and, for fear 
some readers will misunderstand it, we will explain its meaning 
at once. 

If you tell a man that he is not as nearly .well as he ought 
to be, he will agree with you; the thought has fallen on barren 
ground. If you tell him his health is failing rapidly, and that he 
will not live many years, he may or may not agree with you; and, 
in either event, he will pay but little attention to the statement. 
If you tell him there is a pocketbook full of ten-dollar bills waiting 
for him as soon as he gets well, he will go to work at once to secure 
the reward. The thought has struck home. It influences him by 
reason of the fact that he acts upon it. His acting upon it required 
neither exercise, practice, nor training of any kind, but merely a 
better method of living; the rising at a more suitable time in the 
morning, the eating of more wholesome foods, the seeking of suffi- 
cient sleep, pure air, and normal conditions everywhere. These 
things done, the natural impulses set to work and give him perfect 
health. 

The occultist or visionary mental idealist will assert 
that mind influences matter. So it does, and in a variety of ways. 
The method now under consideration is free from all occult asso- 
ciations. The thought that bore the burden of power was of suffi- 
cient interest to arouse the man to action; that is the sum total of 
it all. You may call it motive, selfishness, or what you will; the 
fact remains that something that entered the mind operated to 
change the whole current of the man's life. So, in another case, 
the mere statement that if you give certain persons rope enough, 
they will hang themselves, was of sufficient power to touch a man 
who had been unfortunate through talking too freelv; he did noth- 



198 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

ing in particular, except allow those with whom he dealt to have 
their say, and the result was that his life became one of success, 
instead of failure. It is a very well understood fact that a course 
of living, like a mighty stream of water, may be deflected by sur- 
prisingly small things, although a thought is often great. 

The simple illustrations we have taken are not within the 
range of a magnetic thought. Our object was to show that any 
idea, however conceived, might sway the body of an individual 
upon whom it seemed to have effect. Even if it appealed to nothing 
but motive or greed, it was sufficient in its purpose. Thoughts-^ 
may live as powers either in or out of magnetism, although it is 
claimed that all thoughts are necessarily charged with mental vital- 
ity, which is one kind of magnetism. Thinking, if conscious, is of 
such a class; but much of the ordinary thinking is automatic, and 
nothing automatic is magnetic. It is when a thought is having 
birth, when the desire, the effort or the seeking after it, brings it 
into being, that it is conscious and powerful, even though its value 
is small. The originating of anj-thing is evidence of some vitality, 
and conscious attention is necessary to such a process. 

£* "" ~ ""' ffi 

W 444 £ 

^ s^S^fC^-*'* s ■* S •+ S •*> S^S"**"+ '■+.'■*;■ -m-s^s-m --»•■*• •*/« \ *" 

Magnetic thought is an aggregate unity of the sepa- 
rate thought cells of the body. 

This is the 444th Ralston Principle. What is meant in this 
place as a magnetic thought is one that not only is attended by 
the conscious effort of the person producing it, but has behind it 
the whole nature of the individual. It is not enough that it is 
capable of changing the current of a life: it must take a direct 
hold on that life. The difference should be understood. 

When the information is received that water has been 
discovered in the central district of an arid country, its "force sends 
families thither, breaking up homes, and affecting the future con- 
duct of hundreds of persons. There is nothing magnetic in this 
thought, in the sense in which we are now presenting the matter. 
for the information did not of itself take direct hold of the people. 
In order to become an influencing power, it was necessary that 
there should be an arid country, and that there should be suffering 
because of a lack of water. The news of a better locality was wel- 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF PEACE 199 

come in tlif highest degree. In this and the other cases cited I 
life within the body was not affected; the influence went no further 

than to change the place of residence and the circumstances in- 
cidental to that. 

On the other hand there are thoughts that are born in the 
very being of a person, backed by all his faculties and energi 
which are sent forth to other persons, or which sway the individual 
himself. Such thoughts come from life, out of the realm of human 
feeling, and are destined to affect not merely the conduct, but the 
personality they touch. Instead of making a man move to a new- 
country, they make him a new man, and it is the purpose of every 
magnetic thought to thus afreet some life. It influences matter 
far more powerfully than ordinary appeals to motives or selfish 
interests. 

Such a thought takes hold of a person and involves his 
whole nature, even being felt in his muscles and flesh, from the 
sole of his foot to the crown of his head. "I experienced a thrill 
that made my skin grow cold/' said an auditor to a famous orator 
in referring to a certain passage in his speech that took the house 
by storm. "I felt just the same,* 7 replied the speaker. We listen 
to some powerful thought uttered in a force of magnetism that 
pervades the whole body, and the feeling that we experience is 
also found in that of the person who produces the idea; and the 
same is true, whether it is written or spoken. "When the line 
flowed off my pen, I realized its power even to my feet," said a 
writer. "When I read the line, I was conscious of its power, and 
it took possession of me," said a reader; and it is true in one case 
as in the other. 

It seems that the whole being must live in the thought, 
must be behind it, and unite in giving it a living strength. It does 
not come from the mind alone, not from the brain, the nerves, the 
soul, the flesh, but from all together. Mind is the larger collection 
of gray matter in which vitality dwells; the ganglia, and all other 
minor collections, are likewise endowed with intelligence, which is 
one of the expressions of vitality; but every atom of the body is 
charged with some mentality, which appears in comparatively larger 
form in cell structure, where gray matter seems to first congregate. 
It cannot exist unless intelligence exists with it; t In -re fore it mi 
represent some degree of thought; and, in the countless millions 
of these cells that are present in every cubic inch of flesh, there 




200 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

must be a greater proportion of magnetism than we have ever 
imagined, and this will account for the tremendous concentration 
of power that is felt in a thought whose life is charged with the 
magnetism of the whole body. 

Any person who has ever given birth to such products 
of the mind, is aware of what is meant. The way to distinguish 
them is in the fact that a magnetic thought makes the body feel 
it from head to foot; while a mere mental idea has no influence 
over the flesh, over the material substance, or matter of the body, 
neither in the person who originates it, nor in the one who receives 
it. A line sometimes contains a book. A word or two may move a 
multitude. We have all read the famous remarks of generals in 
battle, whose single flashes of genius have burst forth in almost 
unpremeditated sayings, pregnant with force and stirring to the 
soul. They have without doubt turned defeat into victory at crit- 
ical moments. In vain have historians attempted to analyze their 
mysterious power; admitting always that a half dozen words, spring- 
ing from human energy, have changed the face of a continent. 

We have seemingly diverged since we left our three 
friends in search of the way by which to acquire the art of mag- 
netism. The first saw the natural processes, and quickly found him- 
self confronted by some living principles, and these we have stated. 
He next proceeded to see why certain men and women pose ss great 
energy of purpose, and he thought these might be ascribed to 
temperament; yet the more he examined the propositions, the more 
was he convinced that temperament did not make magnetism, but 
was made by it. Then the problem became deeper. 

Why is it that some persons are magnetic while others 
are not? The brutal saloonkeeper, the savage that forces his gains 
by bullying, the foxy gambler, the coward that adulterates his goods 
and shrinks from the observation of mankind, the manipulator of 
stocks, the cheat and fraud, these are often money-makers without 
the aid of magnetism; so it is not true that success is the gauge 
whereby such vital power may be measured. With magnetism all 
persons should succeed; without it, the dishonest may. All these 
facts were disclosed by our searching and inquiring friend. He 
himself wished to acquire the art, and so betook himself to as( - 
tain the science that directed its operation. 

This first man depends entirely on his powers of obser- 
vation for the information. He simply becomes satisfied that 



REALM OF TEE ESTATE OF PEACE 201 

the body is a machine of great complication, which can no more 
be left to run itself than can any other machine; that the faculties 
are diverse and marvelous, and they, too, need an engineer at the 
throttle to guide and control them. These facts, coupled with the 
lessons derived from other lives, lead him to conclude that the 
power of magnetism is a resultant energy that is generated by life 
itself, and that its degree of power is dependent upon the amount 
of intelligent direction the mind may give to the body and its 
faculties. He goes to work on this principle, and soon finds to his 
satisfaction that his conclusion is correct. He then progresses 
further, and is delighted at the power he has obtained. He is right. 
Man's body is a far more delicate, and yet more effective, machine 
than ever has been seen elsewhere, and it is the only machine that 
man permits to run itself. "Without an engineer it goes at will, and 
is ineffective; it merely struggles along, and to mend the errors 
that naturally arise from allowing it to run itself, there are thou- 
sands of drug stores and thousands of doctors waiting at every 
hand. Let a little intelligence of the right kind come into play, 
and these errors will not happen; force will be conserved; vitality 
will grow on itself, and soon the man or woman who is bright 
enough to find out these things will be credited with the possession 
of the gift of magnetism. This is the first way. 

The second man who starts out to acquire this art, takes 
a course slightly different from that of the man whose methods we 
have recently described. He does not wholly believe that mag- 
netism is the natural accumulation of power coming from energies 
that have been made to serve the control of an intelligent mind. 
The first man concludes that these forces are running away or to 
waste, all the time they are left without an engineer to guide them: 
he studies other lives, and watches the same law at work within 
himself, and finds that his claims are true. The second man does 
not see how magnetism, which he supposes to be a gift, can be 
acquired without doing something. He goes to work to ascertain 
what a gift is, and, from all light that he can get from those who 
are so blessed, he is of the opinion that it is the result of a certain 
way of living, the constant tendency of which is to stimulate and 
excite into development the powers within the body. 

Even being true, as he thinks, he cannot understand 
why this development takes place in one who only thinks about 
living in the way that favors such influences. What has the en- 



202 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

gineer to do with the engine that is running itself? He takes con- 
trol, and permits it to run only as he chooses. Then the machine is 
quite another piece of construction, for it is valued because of what 
it does. Knowledge and skill are required, to be sure; and here a 
volume of instruction of the right kind may be indispensable. Yet 
he believes in regime. He cannot satisfy himself that the engineer 
without training, practice and skill in the art of managing himself, 
would be able to manage his powerful and complicated engine. 

So this second man studies the lives of men and women 
who are acknowledged to be magnetic; he watches them in move- 
ment, in conversation, in idea, in action, until he is almost able 
to follow out their plan of living; and this he proceeds to repro- 
duce. His ,one great lack, as he afterward states, is a book or 
system of laws to guide him. This he procures, and he finds his 
magnetism developing rapidly, and making him a power among 
men. He has really entered upon a life of regime, of exact and 
careful conduct, in which he is but a stronger e of the first 

man, who did less. The real difference is that one saw what was 
necessary to remove opposing influences and take a general super- 
vision over natural faculties, so that these energies might not be 
left without an intelligent guide, while the other did all this, and 
more too, adopting a life of general regime to aid the development 
of the power. 

On comparing results the second man found himself 
the better of the two, and the reason was because he held the reins 
always in his hands, or had the running of the machinery always 
minutely under his control. He saw that magnetic persons who 
left their powers to go as they pleased, except when they chos 
direct them, were always breaking up in periods of life when they 
most needed them, as Napoleon, Blaine, Disraeli, and thousands 
others, who might have avoided wrecks had they marshalled their 
faculties under a system of regime that held them in momentary 
sway. Hence the less brilliant man in the earlier years may _ 
down into old age suffused with the glory of a longer victory and 
crowned with the laurel of unbroken success. 

The third man is perhaps more interesting. He kn - 
all about the first and second, and still more wonders how any 
power can be acquired, without something besides regime. He 
would like to enter into a system of practice, gather electricity as 
does the machine constructed for that purpose, and become a fully 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF PEACE 203 

charged battery, He reads that this can be done by any person 

of ordinary intelligence. Herein he is right; but he will find by 
experiment that it is possible to generate more of such power than 
he can use, and that, unless he actually assumes control of his 
forces, he will be adding one more to the energies that are already 
running away with him. Here the distinction is one of importance . 
The prime demand is for a controlling engineer, and this he can 
secure by allowing his own good judgment, his common sense, to 
govern his powerful army of energies, to bring them into a state of 
peace, and to unite them for action. 

Having considered the three methods that are possible 
of adoption, and found them all valuable; having looked into the 
minds of the classes of ambitious persons, who are most likely to 
succeed in the acquisition of this power, we will now proceed to 
offer the very best means of making the start. It is not so much 
the specific thing you do, as the road on which you travel, that 
determines what the results will be. This should be remembered. 
The difficulty in getting on the right road is not a great one; it 
requires decision, or a making up the mind, to do it, and then the 
step is taken. If you wish to go to one city, and are on the road 
•to another, the first thing to do is to ascertain where the other 
road is, then how to get on it; after which, if you fail to go, the 
fault is your own. 



| ** I 

Self-pledges, honestly "made, are sources of mag- 
netism. 

This is the 445th Ealston Principle. A self-pledge is made 
to yourself, not to us or any other person. If you break it, you 
alone know it; the responsibility is with you, and you alone can 
mend it. A pledge is, and always has been, a great means of help 
to a strong character, and a fair means of help to a weak character. 
The argument that a man or woman of energy needs no such tether 
is not sustainable under examination. The strongest boats need 
the strongest moorings; the greatest ships require the most certain 
as well as the most secure of anchors. 

Any definiteness of purpose is magnetic because it unifies- 
the energies of the body; and the more complete that purpose he- 



204 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

comes, the more it will concentrate the millions of powers that 
make up the faculties behind the resolve. This ability to unite 
the divergent forces of one's life is seen in the affairs of state in 
the policy of a great nation. England's civil wars gave way to meet 
the dangers of a foreign enemy. Eome united her discordant fac- 
tions under the skilful manipulation of Csesar, who sought to con- 
quer all the world without her gates. <Mfcee reached the climax 
of her power while her States fought side by side against her 
Asiatic enemies, and it was because of her political agitators at 
home that she fell a prey to nearer foes. Napoleon could not hold 
France together in time of peace; he broke his oaths in order to 
excite foreign war and thus retain control of his stormy people. 
The American Eevolution was serious enough to weld the thirteen 
Colonies into one amalgamated nation; and when the country was 
divided into North and South by bloody war, the scars of dissension 
were obliterated by the conflict with Spain, in which the blue and 
the gray fought side by side. 

A pledge is made for the purpose of entering boldly into 
the battle of life, and its first effect is to unify the army with which 
victory is to be won. It is a purpose crystallized. Any resolve has 
some. value, and on the same principle. Magnetism awaits use; 
not getting it, the power wastes away. "With a lack of regime, there 
are millions of energies running wild, which would prove tre- 
mendous batteries of magnetism if more regime were to be em- 
ployed to hold them in check. What is meant by resolve, purpose 
and such higher conditions of the mind, must be understood in the 
sense referred to in the realm of The Will, as set forth in this 
volume. Names are somewhat technical when used in a specific 
study. 

A series of pledges will be found herein, suited to two 
classes of students of these pages. The first class we call the weak 
persons, and this term means merely that they are not of a decisive 
temperament. They either do not see the necessity or advantage 
of making a pledge, or else they are afraid that they will not be 
able to keep it after it is made. This disposition is one that is well 
known and met with very frequently. It is not by any means one 
to be despised or belittled; for those who are most fearful in the 
beginning sometimes are most faithful in the end. It is nor a 
good sign to rush thoughtlessly into anything; shallowness may be 
indicated by so doing. Of course it is wise to take large steps, and 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF PEACE 205 

the pledge-maker who can at once make the resolution required for 

strong persons, and can then adhere to it, is more of a great indi- 
vidual than one who takes the feeble steps. So we have two class 
of considerations confronting us. 

The Worry-Pledge for Wecift Persons. 

I resolve to reduce my habit of worrying as far as I am able so 
to do; and if I cannot succeed in keeping this pledge, I will con- 
sider it honorable to renew it as many times as I may break it. I 
will sign this resolution with pen and ink, placing the dates of so 
doing on the lines therefor. 

[Name] 



The Worru-Pleclge for Strong Persons. 

I am aware that it is my nature to allow the details of life 
to cause me unnecessary worry, which not only reduces my happi- 
ness, but also limits my usefulness in the world. In order that I 
may acquire more self-control, I resolve with my whole nature to 
stop all worrying, and to stop it at once. I will think of the use- 
lessness a hundred years hence of this habit of to-day; and, doing 
right at all times, toiling on without cessation, taking pains to 
provide against all misfortunes, as far as continual vigilance can 
accomplish such end, I shall let come w r hat will without worry, 
and I will meet my fate unflinchingly. If, after signing this 
pledge, I am unable to keep its provisions, I will not hesitate to 
re-sign it even many times. I now place my name hereto in ink 

on this day of 

[Name] 



If either pledge is broken, it should be re-signed over the lines 
already used, and the dates can be placed in the spaces reserved 
for them. 



206 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 



The Irritability-Pledge tor Weak Persons. 

I resolve to reduce my irritability as far as I am able so to do; 
and if I cannot succeed in keeping this pledge. I will consider it 
honorable to renew it as manv times as I mav break it. I will sign 
this resolution with pen and ink, placing the dates of so doing on 
the lines therefor. 

[Xarne] 



In signing the above more than once, retrace the first signa- 
ture very lightly, and use a new date space each time. 



The Irritability-Pledge for Strong Persons. 

I am aware that I am easily irritated by trifles: that when alone 
or in the presence of those for whose opinion of my faults I care 
but little, I give way to this weakness; that it is slowly but surely 
growing on mo, and will sooner or later deform my features, sour 
my disposition, and unsettle my nervous system, even if it does not 
affect my mind; and I therefore resolve not to permit it to gain 
further headway in my life. I pledge myself to cease at once all 
irritability. I will calmly endure the occurrences that tend to 
arouse my ill-nature, and will prove myself the master of them. 
If, after signing this pledge, I am unable to keep its provisions. I 
will not hesitate to re-sign it even many times. I now place my 
name hereto in ink on this day of 

[Name] 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF PEA a: 207 



The Superstition-Pledge for Weak Persons. 

I resolve to reduce my belief in superstitions as far as I am 
able; and, if I fail in so doing,, I will consider it honorable to renew 
this pledge as many times as I may break it. I will sign this 
resolution with pen and ink, placing the dates of so doing on the 
lines therefor. 

[Name] 



In signing any of the foregoing pledges the same rules apply. 
If you break one, retrace the signature so as not to make more 
than one appear attached to each pledge, but take a new date space 
at each time of signing. 



The Superstition-Pledge for Strong Persons. 

I am aware that I have fallen prey to that unaccountable 
weakness of mind known as superstition; that I hesitate to do cer- 
tain things in certain ways that would ordinarily be adopted but for 
the fear that some ill-luck may arise from so doing them; that I 
hesitate to sit with a certain number, associate with a certain num- 
ber, or commence undertakings on a certain day, or otherwise, 
because of the same fear; that such influence over my life, while 
it may now be trifling, might increase so as to warp my good judg- 
ment and detract from its clear operation; and I therefore firmly 
resolve to put down forever all such fears, and to boldly challenge 
every superstition by being willing to adopt it. If I shall break 
this pledge, I will re-sign it as many times as may be necessary to 
conquer the fault. 

[Name | 



208 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

If you think you do not need the aid of a pledge, try the 
other plan of noting down the desire to overcome the habits of 
worry, irritability and superstition. Perhaps you never worry. So 
much the better; that pledge is for your neighbor. Perhaps you are 
free from all irritability; if so, you must be very magnetic or in- 
superably stupid, and the latter state is beyond all cure. Perhaps 
you never have any faith in the ill-omens of life; if you say so, you 
may be perfectly honest in the statement and yet quite wrong. A 
man of business success said that he had no fear of ill-luck, and 
never bothered himself one way or the other about the notions 
that frightened other persons. He was asked if he would sit down 
to the table in a company of thirteen, or would start for Europe 
on a Friday, or would take stateroom No. 13, and so on. He con- 
sented to all but the starting to Europe on a Friday and sitting in 
the company of thirteen. "My only objection to the former is 
because I know how superstitious the sailors would be if they were 
compelled to go out to sea on a Friday. In a storm they would be 
wild and unmanageable. As to thirteen at a table, I know a man 
personally who took dinner with twelve men, and in a year all were 
dead but himself. He died prematurely.*' It can be seen how 
absolute is this fear of the hidden power of superstition ever those 
who are supposed to be strong enough to outride such weaknesses 
of mind. The man in question was not magnetic, and his sncc( ss 
waned as he grew older. He really was a prey to the habit, much 
against his knowledge. 

One case should be cited at this time for the aid of those 
who are the victims of the law of chance, for they may become 
unwilling subjects of distrust in their fight to annihilate the habit 
of superstition. A man who had been troubled by ill-omens, ac- 
cepted our advice, and gave them up. He had some very strong 
native ability and a will-power that was equal to the battle: yet 
things had gone against him for years, while he was avoiding any- 
thing that would bring him ill-luck. His wife had hampered him 
by the addition of countless new points on superstition. When he 
started to go under a ladder, she uttered a piercing scream. "Do 
you not know that you will die within a year if you go under that 
ladder?" He stepped aside in time to save his life, for a hod carrier 
overhead was unnerved by the scream, and let fall a load of bricks, 
any one of which would have crushed out the little life he seemed 
to possess. 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF PEACE 209 

When he entered a store and was about to go out by 
another door, she remonstrated, and thus saved him from another 
disaster. When, in fixing a picture to the wall, he accidentally 
arranged two chairs so that they faced the same way tandem, she 
shouted, "Don't do that. Don't you know it will bring a funeral 
inside of six months?" So he saved somebody's life, name un- 
known, by knocking the chairs out of their unlucky combination. 
This had gone on for years, until he was reduced in vitality to such 
an extent that he was useless in business and a nonentity at home 
Life was a gross burden to him. He took up the study of mag- 
netism. Under our advice he struck every superstition in the teei h 
by doing just what he had been told would bring ill-luck. His 
first important act was begun on a Friday, and disaster followed. 

He wrote in despair, saying his wife and her mother "told 
him so," and hounded him about the house until he was sick of 
seeing and hearing them. We saw that his faith in our doctrines 
was badly shaken, and that he was likely to go into a worse con- 
dition than ever before. The disaster referred to followed a trip 
in the cars to a distant city. He started on a Friday, and came 
near losing his life in a collision. It was a terrible refuting of our 
claims, but we proceeded to explain to him that the collision was 
not due to the fact that he accepted our advice to break over the 
traces of superstition; it was not due to the fact that he was on 
the train; it was not due to the fact that he disobeyed his wife's 
tearful injunctions to wait until the next Monday; it was not due 
to the fact that the train started on Friday, but solely to the care- 
lessness of the man in the tower, who gave the wrong signal. The 
fact that he suffered the mishap could be accounted for only on 
the law of chance; and this we tried to explain to him as best we 
could, depending on his intelligence for an understanding of 
the law. 

There are so many accidents, disasters, misfortunes or 
other dire occurrences in the course of a year; a few less or more 
in each twelvemonth. All could be averted by sufficient care, but 
they are not. By figuring out these affairs, and comparing them 
with the number of persons who come in contact with them, you 
may see what chance you stand of being a victim. Thus, if there 
are seventy million persons in this country, and one hundred and 
forty are killed in a year from railroad accidents, you stand a 
chance of being so fated in the proportion of two in a million. If 



210 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

you were told that one person in every five hundred thousand 
would become a millionaire, you would not think a second time 
about it. If you were sure that you could make over four hundred 
thousand trips on the railroad without being killed, taking the 
averages as a guide, you would not fear. 

Trains start on Fridays as numerously as on other days. 
There are but seven days in a week. Under the law of chance, out 
of every seventy accidents ten should be on Fridays. Some three 
years ago a friend called our attention to the fact that two acci- 
dents had occurred on this day; we requested him to keep a record 
for a while, and, to his surprise, the worst accidents since have 
occurred on Mondays and Tuesdays, though he says he is satisfied 
that the law of chance will bring them around again. The more 
you examine these questions, the more you will be convinced that 
there is no special ill-luck associated with dates, days, numbers, or 
anything else. 

We explained the law of chance to our unlucky friend. 
Tie had the intelligence to adhere to his resolution. He wrote: "I 
will go contrary to every superstition when I can do so without 
interfering with my business. This I am determined to do if I 
die in my efforts to test this bugbear.'' He grit his teeth together, 
locked his will-power into a solid strength of mind, defied his fear- 
ful wife, told his apprehensive mother-in-law that he had been 
bamboozled long enough, and then awaited more disasters. He 
found himself getting independence of mind, a clearer judgment, 
and more magnetism through the very strength of his resolution. 
In a year his life turned into a new channel. He won success. His 
wife began to believe in him, and even had hopes thai her mother 
would do the same. 

This realm is now coming to a close. It is one of col- 
lecting forces and harmonizing them, preparatory to the greater 
battles that are to follow. It is the realm of peace, the estate of 
quietude such as precedes the movement of a vast array of bat- 
talions toward the enemy of success. Too many students of these 
problems make the unpardonable error of supposing that will- 
power and magnetism are evidenced by the mad plunge into the 
ranks of the foe, before an attempt is made to collect and count 
the forces at command. As sensible would it be for any general to 
hurl his columns against the enemy while yet his soldiers were 
carousing and fighting among themselves. 



REALM FIVE 




WE live in deeds, not years; In thoughts, not breaths; 
In feelings, not in figures on a dial. 
We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives, 
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best. 
And he whose heart beats quickest lives the longest: 
Lives In owe hour more than in years do some 
Whose fat blood sleeps as it slips along their veins. 
Life is but a means unto an end; that end, 
Beginning, mean, and end to all things— God. 
The dead have all the glory of the world." 




Ti)^ E^bab^ of bl>e Will 



THE REALM OE POWER 



a 



IMMORTAL Clouds from me echoing sWorc 

Of The father of streams from the sounding sea, 
Dewy and fleet, let us rise and soar; 

Dewy and gleaming and fleet are we! 
Let us look ow the tree-clad mountain-crest, 

On the sacred earth where the fruits rejoice, 
On the waters that murmur east and west, 

On the tumbling sea with his moaning voice— 
ror unwearied glitters the Eye of the Air, 

And the bright rays gleam; 
Then cast we our shadows of mist, and fare 
In our deathless shapes to glance everywhere 
rrom the height of the Heaven, o\\ the land and air, 
And the ocean stream." 

(211) 



u 



\r<A 



LIE that Knows not, and knows that he knows not; he 
is a fool,— shun him. 
He that knows not, and knows that he knows not; 
he is ignorant,— teach him. 

He that knows, and knows not that he knows; he 
is blind,— lead him. 

He that knows, and knows that he knows; he is 
wise,— follow him." 



1 \S owe who by the beach roams far and wide, 

Remnant of wreck to save, 
Again I wandered when the salt sea-fide 

Withdrew its wave; 
And there, unchanged, no taint in all its sweet, 

no anger in its tone, 
Still as it thought some happy Drool? to meet, 

The spring flowed on. 
While waves of bitterness rolled o'er its head, 

Its heart had folded deep 
Within itself, and quiet fancies led, 

As in a sleep; 
Till, when the ocean loosed his heavy chain, 

And gave it back to-day, 
Calmly it turned to its own life again 

And gentle way." 



' \N Eden blooms in the waste wilderness. 
And fountains sparkle in the arid sands, 
And timbrels ring in maidens' glancing hands, 
And marble cities crown the laughing lands, 
And pillared temples rise thy name to bless." 

(212) 



Tl)e Estate of bl>e Will 




THE SEVEN WISE MEN OE GREECE M\D THEIR 

WISEST SAYINGS. 
"Know thyself."— Soiou. 
"Consider the end."— Cbifo 
" Know thy opportunity."— Pittacus, 
"Most men are bad."— Bias. 
"Nothing is impossible to industry."— Periander. 
" ZWoid excess."— Qeobuius. 
"Suretyship is the precursor of ruin."— -Thaks. 




THE human will is in no wise like the will of lower ani- 
mals. It may set itself to a fixed purpose and conquer, all 
the while urging on the progress of its action; while the 
will of the animal is more like the stubbornness of man. 
One takes a track, and docs not deviate from the course to be 
pursued; the other fastens itself to a certain idea, and cleaves to 
that with tenacity. There are points of resemblance, but in the 
main the distinction lies in this separation of the mind's activ- 
ities; by which is meant that in the exercise of the will there i< a 
continued activity carrying it along, while in stubbornness, as in 

(■J 13) 



214 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

animals' purposes, the idea is fixed beyond recall or variation, and 
any interference with it is regarded as an intrusion. 

For fear that this is not yet clear we will explain 
further what is meant. The seat of all will-power is in the brain. 
That which decides what to do or not to do is called the mental 
action; and although animals are said to lack minds as organs of 
reasoning, they possess mental faculties not very far below some 
of those accredited to certain members of the human family. They 
decide to do or not to do a hundred or more conscious acts daily. 
It is an operation of the will that causes each decision, but after 
the point of action has been reached in their thinking processes, 
the muscles, or else the physical division of the brain, the cere- 
bellum, takes possession of the whole being and knows no change. 

This limitation of the activity of the brain to merely the 
deciding of what to do or not to do, is peculiar to animals and to 
stubborn human beings. The cat in earnest sees its prey, it meas- 
ures the distance, and decides that it can or cannot make the leap 
successfully, for it is familiar with its own powers through prior 
experiment. For this the cat plays in kittenhood; it jumps about 
in every possible use of the body, until it knows the length of its 
range in making the spring; and not until old age withers its vigor 
does it cease altogether to play. The same is true of all animals, 
even the most savage. The lion in the jungle lies in ambush, and 
prepares to make the leap only when the prey is within reach; it 
may wait, and wait in vain. 

The peculiar characteristic of the animal brain is to see 
its way clear to doing a certain thing, and then proceeding to its 
execution on the theory that it is surely to be done. It cannot 
understand nor brook disappointment. The little ant shows every 
indication of a hot temper if its purpose is interfered with; so does 
the familiar bee that busies itself about the flowers at the porch. 
Most wild animals are terrible only when they are checked in their 
attempts to do what they undertake, and the ugly dispositions of 
domestic pets are due to being thwarted from time to time. Like 
obstinate men and women, they rage or grow sullen when some- 
thing occurs to make a change of purpose necessary. You know 
how almost unbearable it is for a mulish individual who says he 
will not do a certain thing, to be compelled to do that very thing: 
yet how pleasant it is for any sensible person to change the mind 
when the exigency requires. The one is animal by proclivity, the 



REALM OF THE E8 Tu VTE OF WILL -POWER. 215 

other is human in the best sense of the word. To close the mind 
is to stop the will's action after it has merely decided to do or not 
to do a certain thing. 

8 s 

% 446 § 

£$ 6s 

Stubbornness is a physical, fixed and non-magnetic 
force. 

This is the 446th Ralston Principle. What is the real char- 
acter of stubbornness should be well understood, for it is common 
to mistake this unprogressive condition for will-power. Such a 
man is reputed to be of strong will. Why? Because he never 
changes his mind when once he makes it up. Then he is a fool. 
There are some men and some women who take special pride in 
having it known that they never change their minds. "Mother is 
slow to make up her mind, but when she does, nothing can alter 
it," says a proud daughter, as she glances at the mother who rocks 
sternly in her chair. 

You can examine and analyze every such case of obsti- 
nacy, and you will never find one of magnetism among them. This 
mother, who is so slow to make up her mind, justifies herself on the 
ground that she would be very fickle to decide one way, and then 
another. A father, who adopted a rule of uniformity with his 
children, would adhere to it through thick and thin, because he 
knew he would look weak if his word could not be relied upon. 
When he told a son to do a certain thing, it must be done, even if 
the circumstances requiring its performance had changed, or if a 
mistake had been made in the order. One day he told him to 
lock up the house at eight o'clock, and not open it for any living 
person, as he himself had a key and would open the door when he 
came home about eleven o'clock. It was a cold night. The boy's 
mother and sister, who had gone out of town on a visit, arrived 
back a day sooner than intended, and found all doors and windows 
locked. They called to the boy, who declared, in the exact words 
of his father, that the door was not to be opened for any living 
being, and that he did not dare to disobey. He clung to the idea, 
and the father praised the boy, while deploring the sad annoyance 



216 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

and subsequent fatal pneumonia that ended the foolishness. To 
this day that man, like millions of his stripe, believes that it is a 
matter of valor to make np the mind and not change it. 

Fathers who have young sons, or daughters in their 
teens, are more likely to become obstinate old fools than other 
men, who are unencumbered with such offspring. Here is a case: 
One father of this kind told his boy to carry a letter to the post- 
office, and be sure to get it there before the mail closed at six 
o'clock in the afternoon. His clock was wrong, and the boy found 
it out when half way to the post-office. He was told that he could 
put the letter on the train, which he did; it was handed to the 
postal clerk of the mail car, where it was as safe as in any post- 
office. The bov had done right: it would have been foolish to 
have done otherwise, yet his father whipped him, saying that when 
he was told to do a thing he must do it as told, no matter whether 
he knew it was right or not. 

Such obstinacy was the worst training the boy could 
have received. In this world the art of living well and success- 
fully is the art of adjusting one's self to the ever varying tide of 
circumstances. It is an ocean crowded with craft; not a barren 
sea in which the obstinate helmsman is the only man afloat. The 
swells are always at work drifting one out of his course, and throw- 
ing other craft in one's line of progress. The father whom we 
have described would have told his boy to steer the ship for a 
certain port, no matter what came in the way. The wise man 
would have explained contingencies to his son, would have in- 
structed him in the art of adjusting himself to changes of condi- 
tions, and have praised his sagacity. In no other way can life be 
made a harmony and its progress a success. 

No policy, no plan, no operation can be so clearly out- 
lined ahead as to require no change. The greatest battles of history 
have been fought out on lines that varied materially from those 
intended. Even where the far-seeing sagacity of the keenest gen- 
eral has caught in advance the inevitable moves that must lead to 
the battle's end, he has had to meet contingencies by departures, 
one way or the other, in order to force the moves as he saw them. 
Change is the law of life. A man may aim to reach a certain goal, 
and may keep steadfastly to his purpose, but his road must be 
suited to the direction in which he is traveling. e{ I will go to that 
end," savs the determined man. "I will go to that end by this 



f 



REALM OF TEE ESTATE OF WII4L-POWER. 217 

route," says the obstinate man. The one gets there by adjust] 

his journey to the conditions with which he must contend; but he 
gets there. The other starts out on the road he himself has or- 
dained to be the one that must be traveled, and when he finds that 
it is not the right one, he stands still, and will not budge. 

Such conduct is too often supposed to be evidence of a 
magnetic character; but it is quite the opposite. If you have an 
electrical dynamo that is capable of supplying your house with 
light, you must know how to set it in motion and keep it going. 
The fact that the power is there is not sufficient; you cannot afford 
to cut off the current by deciding in your mind that the power will 
do the work. Turn on the current. The will is supplied by a 
steady energy that comes from the strength of your purpose. Now, 
suppose that the energy is there, and is strong enough, of what use 
is it if you shut off the mind? The current must be turned on, 
must remain on, and the energy of purpose must not be slackened. 

Look at the case of the man who bitterly complained 
that he had met only failure in life; nothing but reverses from the 
moment he began to take care of himself. "Why is it?" he asked. 
"I have been industrious, but that has not brought wealth. I have 
worked into the night for years to keep out of the poorhouse; and 
I have never got far out of its shadow. Why is it? Then, why do 
others hesitate to deal with me? I pride myself on my honesty. I 
am worthy of their confidence. In business I can get a reasonable 
amount of credit, all I ask; but I cannot buy as low as others; I 
have to sell for less, and very few seem anxious to have anything to 
do with me." His wife also spoke of him in the highest terms. 
"Why has not Hiram succeeded better? He is a man of iron will." 
This added light to the mystery. It seems that some misguided 
guardian had instilled into Hiram's mind that art of making it up 
and sticking to it. When he got an idea well lodged in his cranium, 
he hung to it. He locked his mind up, and threw the key away. 
It was that or nothing. 

This man who so bitterly complained of his fate, can be 
better understood by referring to an incident that illustrates his 
whole career. He owned some land, and managed to mortgage it 
for nearly its full value, so that his equity in it waa very small. 
Still he owned it, and took an interest in its surroundings. A 
natural brook ran across the corner of the rear end, at a place 
where he missed none of the land bv reason of its rocky condition: 



218 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

and through this brook the rains washed from the adjoining 
ground. This he considered an encroachment on his rights, so he 
dammed the brook, and forced the overflow elsewhere to the an- 
noyance of his neighbors. They requested him to take down the 
barrier. He declined. They threatened, and he laughed at them. 
He had closed his mind. Once shut, it was an engine of power that 
had stopped running. He did not, for he could not, think beyond 
the one idea that the land was his; what was his he could do with 
as he pleased, and he pleased to dam the brook. That was the be- 
ginning and the end, the all in all. When he made up his mind, it 
was made up. Hiram was a man of iron will. So was the jackass 
that planked his feet in the roadway of the forest and would not 
budge, not even when they built a fire under him. Hiram made 
it known that he would not remove the dam. They summoned 
him to court, and he stayed at home. The judge ordered a removal 
of the dam, and he tore up the paper. He was cited to court for 
contempt, and would not go. They took him there by force. He 
was fined, but would not pay. He was ordered to jail until he had 
purged himself of the contempt, and this he would not do. His 
good wife finally paid the money, kicked out the dam, apologized 
to the judge, and secured her husband's release. He even did not 
seem anxious for that, but as he had found it impossible to get 
some of his favorite dishes in the jail diet, he concluded to get back 
home once more. 

The Iron Chancellor, Bismarck, was a man of deter- 
mined will, as set and steadfast as he could be, but he never per- 
mitted his mind to close itself against change. While adhering to 
a purpose with bulldog pugnacity, he used all means to win, even 
at times pretending to abandon it. He obeyed his friends; he 
respected all authority above and below him; he shifted his course 
a dozen times when it was policy, but he clung to the idea of ulti- 
mate victory. This is magnetism. It is not obstinacy. Had he 
dammed a brook that served to carry away the water from a neigh- 
bor's land, he would have removed the dam on request if he had 
ascertained that the law so decreed. Able men take soundings. 
Small men are sometimes great in this regard, and they have mag- 
netism in relative decrees, rising above the strata beneath them. 
Good judgment is discretion; discretion is valor, and both are the 
opposites of obstinacy. Do not get the mind fixed, for it will close 
and shut off the power of the will. 



REALM OF TUE ESTATE OF WILL-POWER. 219 

| 447 § 

The will is an active progressive force. 

This is the 447th Ralston Principle. The difference between 
making np one's mind and executing its purpose is a vast one. 
What is called the will is a force; it is not a condition or situation. 
It is a train in motion, not a mule standing in the path of progress, 
and refusing to move one way or the other. Under the special cir- 
cumstances of life, the habit of making up one's mind and holding 
it unalterable, is both dangerous and disastrous. The future is 
always before us, and it is not possible to see its vicissitudes. What 
you have passed through in the last ten years is quite different from 
what you contemplated. You could hardly have foreseen half of 
its incidents. 

All these propositions appear to conflict with one an- 
other. But they do not. Obstinacy is the closing of the mind, 
shutting it up, and turning oil its currents of action as the engineer 
may close the throttle by making up his mind to do so. Will- 
power is the turning on of the current, the starting of the engine. 
Here is the first distinction, and 'it should be borne in mind. It 
seems also to be a contradiction, for it deprecates the idea of mak- 
ing up the mind. A resolve to do a thing that is really undertaken 
is quite different from a setting of the mind blindly. If you seek 
a certain goal, if you are taking your ship toward a port, the will- 
power is in full operation; but there is no need of setting the mind. 
It should be open and active, ready to consider any matters that 
are likely to arise. Obstinacy is not always a negative position. 
What we maintain is that it is a position, and not an activity. Thus 
if a captain decided to go to a certain port by a certain route, he 
is carrying out his purpose so long as everything favors his progress 
by that direction; but if he refuses to change the route when good 
judgment requires, either tor safety, for lessening the time, or 
other reason, he is obstinate; his mind has become set and is no 
longer a machine of the will. It would be as unwise to lash the 
helm and see nothing, know nothing, determine nothing, after 
the one making up of the mind in the start. 

It is necessary to make up the mind. This cannot be 
denied. But it is necessary to keep it active and under control as 



220 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

a power. A resolve may open or close the mind; if it opens it. it 
may become a magnetic force; if it closes it, the result is obstinacy. 
It is necessary for the general to determine what he will do in 
battle, and if he gives orders for the advance npon the enemy's 
breastworks, he mnst be ready at all times to change his method 
•of proceeding without abandoning the purpose to carry the posi- 
tion. It may be necessary for him to call his troops back a number 
of times, or to change the route of the advance, or to retire when 
the firing is too heavy, or otherwise maneuver as the vicissitudes 
of battle may demand. Here it will be seen that the purpose re- 
mains unaltered, and the will-power is alive in the fullest energy; 
discretion and valor clasp hands; the skilful resting, the with- 
drawal, the constant change of tactics, are all evidences of an open 
mind, willing to do whatever is best for securing the end which 
is in view. Had the general blindly ordered the troops to advance 
in a certain way, or by methods of action which were at variance 
with good judgment, he might have been ignorant or unable to 
make himself master of the art of war; but if he persisted in a 
course of conduct that could not be justified even under the theory 
of a mistaken judgment, he would have been obstinate, for the 
mind would have been closed to all suggestion or thought of varia- 
tion necessary to save his soldiers from unwarrantable bloodshed. 

From these illustrations it will be seen that a person 
may be obstinate affirmatively by closing the mind upon some 
determination to act or take a particular course, and allow no 
variance from that. It would be the same as if there wore no mind 
at all after the initiative had been taken. As well might a loco- 
motive be started blindly upon a journey without any one to guide 
it on the way, as was done when a discharged employe of a railroad 
company opened the throttle of an engine, and jumped from the 
cab when it got under way, watching it as it sped out of sight. 
Most persons fail in life whose will-power is of the wrong kind. 
They have the ability to make up the mind to win success: they see 
ahead of them the goal which should be readied, and they start for 
it, thinking that all that is necessary is the aim and the getting 
under way. 

There are two considerations relating to the importance 
of making up the mind, which should be understood in this con- 
nection. Shall a person keep the mind open and give it free op- 
portunity to change at will, or shall the mind, when once made up. 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF WILL-POWER. 221 

remain steadfast to its purpose and allow no change? If the former 
proposition is true, I hen there is nothing but vacillation in any 
project of life, and the world is too full of these uncertain persons, 
who do not know what they want more than a day at a time. If 
the latter proposition is true, then a mistaken idea must be pursued 
to the end, even if nothing but disaster awaits it. What has previ- 
ously been said may now be crystallized into the following summing 
up: There must be known in advance the goal toward which one- 
directs his journey; this goal must be determined upon in a proper 
way, without hazzard of judgment or the prospect of certain suc- 
cess; and then the purpose must go on until the end is reached. 
The only thing important, and the only thing that should be un- 
changeable, is the goal; all else must yield and shape itself to this 
bit of human history. The best way of proceeding may or may not 
be understood at the start, and it is along the journey's course that 
an open mind is required, for the energy of an active will must 
not be relaxed until the victory has been attained. 

Development of the will requires the cultivation of 
straightforward thought. 

This is the 448th Ealston Principle. The answer to the ques- 
tions raised may be found under the law we have just stated. If 
it is true that so sad an error has been inaugurated as that a person 
has started toward a goal that is not worth the effort to reach, and 
has sacrificed perhaps some of the best years of his life in toil that 
must now be regarded as wasteful, the graver problem arises, 
whether the steps should be retraced and a new goal sought. Of 
course the root of the whole trouble is due to the mistake of choos- 
ing the wrong road in the beginning, and this can only be lamented, 
not remedied. 

The remark is often made that it would be a great bless- 
ing if the right goal could be chosen at the start. It is undoubtedly 
true that some failures in life are ascribable to the selection of a 
wrong purpose; but the chief causes of disaster are not due to 
the choice so much as the way the journey is mad?. We shall 
briefly discuss both phases of .this matter. In the first place, no- 



222 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

person should make an error in the choice of the goal, whether it 
be that of his life work, or some one of the lesser ends that are 
necessary in the great straggle. If his judgment he poor, he should 
seek the aid of one whose advice he respects, and even then he need 
not run much risk of making a mistake. When MacMahon, a 
poor boy of France, saw the dazzling glory which surrounded the 
office of marshal of that great country, he resolved to devote his 
life to the one purpose of reaching that position. After events 
justified the statement that it was not a wild flight of his mind, 
but a fixed design, which had been thought out with some knowl- 
edge of the difficulties that would stand in the way. Some persons 
might regard him as demented, others as foolhardy, still others as 
ignorant of what he was undertaking; but MacMahon was evi- 
dently thinking in what we call a straightforward direction. He 
knew that the office might be attained through merit, that the first 
requisite was the ability to perforin its duties, that he must be a 
soldier in the ranks before he could hope to become an officer, that 
he must win his way from one grade to another, as thousands be- 
fore him had done, and that he must seek such elevation as would 
place him within easy distance of the goal; and while this might 
be in sight, the most difficult step of all was the shortest. There 
is nothing impossible, nor improbable in so much of the journey. 
From the condition of poverty and obscurity to that of high official 
rank in the army of France was a long but reasonably certain 
advance; he saw that it was within the range of the right kind of 
a youth, and he knew that the right kind of a man could bridge 
the final gulf. He succeeded; he became Marshal of France; he 
became more. 

We have selected an extreme case as an example of 
what is meant by straightforward thought in the development of 
the will. Had this young man decided to become emperor of that 
nation, he would at no time have been reasonably sure of the ful- 
fillment of his purpose, and he might have been open to the charge 
of weak-mindedness. When Napoleon stood on the bank of the 
Seine, about to plunge into its waters to obtain that relief which 
his fevered and disordered brain demanded, he saw no hope of any- 
thing in life; nor is it true that, when he led the army of Italy 
through its series of brilliant victories, he was then contemplating 
the mastery of France. His fate unrolled to him page by page, 
and he himself said that he was a man of destiny, being led on 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF WILL-POWER. 223 

whithersoever its powers decreed. We can hardly imagine a young 
man seeing his way clear to the overthrow of any power, even a 
provisional government, until he had a reasonable assurance that 
such an end was possible. MacMahon had such assurance. Napo- 
leon's career was a series of goals, each carrying him higher and 
higher, until he became dictator of Europe. 

It is probable that destiny opens up in a scries of pros- 
pects these goals to every earnest life. Starting with a fixed deter- 
mination to make the most of the conditions at hand, and bending 
every energy to do the very best that circumstances will permit, a 
mind of iron will does not have to proceed far before a new plane 
of action appears beyond the horizon. Destiny is at work. Again 
the true heart toils well and aims high; the footing is becoming 
more secure each day, and soon there is no doubt that something 
awaits further on. Whether the compass of living be small or 
great, the noblest successes are achieved in this way, and the end of 
one's career need not be sought or even known in the beginning. 
What is true of a whole life is true of any part of it. To make the 
very most of what is within reach is sure of rapidly extending the 
lines of the horizon and increasing the compass of our possibilities. 
Lord Beaconsfield determined to become a member of Parliament; 
he was a young man of about twenty-two, possibly, at the time, 
and it was probable that the premiership was not in his mind, 
although it was not out of his reach. Had he thought to make 
himself king of England, the whole purpose would have been 
chaotic. Nothing daunted him. When he finally obtained a seat 
in Parliament, and obtained a hearing, he made the most dismal of 
failures; yet his purpose was unshaken. 

An analysis of his character may throw some light upon 
our principle. He was not seeking his election for the purpose of 
filling his purse or gratifying a temporary whim; he wished to 
come before the nation as a man of power, and, having come into 
possession of the opportunity, he immediately proceeded to use it 
to that end. At first he was a Liberal, but the party was un- 
popular, and he deviated his course to one that would place him on 
the winning side. His first speech was laughed at and jeered; he 
felt the weakness of his abilities, but he told his hearers that the 
time would come when they would listen to him, and this indicated 
that his will was supreme. Having become a Conservative, ami 
having made himself a power in Parliament, he quickly succeeded 



224 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

in showing Peel that he was a lieutenant of no small value. Able- 
leaders of great political parties must have assistants about them 
capable of executing their wishes. Greatness lives in the men who 
serve it, Disraeli never swerved from the purpose of his ambition, 
but he altered his path and changed his methods as often as he 
could gain some end by so doing. He saw the vulnerable points in 
the character of his leader, and forthwith proceeded to take ad- 
vantage of them. In a speech in Parliament, ostensively intended 
for another purpose, he placed Peel on trial, succeeded in over- 
throwing his government, and was chosen to heal the breaches he 
had made. 

The story of Beaconsfield's life shows him to have been 
a man who was thwarted often in his progress toward the goal 
which he sought, but who never swerved from its ultimate attain- 
ment. He was willing to step aside when the obstacles were too 
great to be surmounted, to thrust them aside when he felt that he 
had the power, to compromise when neither was possible, and to 
make them his tools if something was to be gained therebv. His 

. DO. 

career is an illustration of what is meant by straightforward 
thought, for he kept the end in view. Had he made his plans in 
any other way, as most men do who are weak, he would have altered 
his purpose for some immediate success. As long as the thought 
in mind is straightforward, it will not deviate from the purpose, 
but will change only its method of pursuit. 

it* ^ 

s 4 « i 

ft aaaaataaaaM. 

The will sets the goal of purpose. 

This is the 449th Ralston Principle. It is very easy for weak- 
lings to depart from a plan which they have entered upon with 
some display of energy, and the lives of most men and women show 
that they are incapable of maintaining the straightforward thought 
which alone sustains the will and brings success. The case is so 
common, and may be so easily recognized, that a single instance 
will be sufficient to explain what is meant. A young man enters 
the university, and knows nothing of what course he will pursue 
after graduation. He says he will be older then and in a Ik 
position to determine. In this he is right, for a general education 



REALM OF TEE ESTATE OF WILL-POWER. 225 

may be made the foundation of most any kind of a worth} can 
lie becomes a lawyer, and resolves to reach the bead of hie proces- 
sion, clear way up in the top ranks, where there is so much room, 
as Daniel Webster once said. In the first year of his practice his 
receipts are in the neighborhood of one hundred dollar-, and as this 
is in excess of what Webster and Choate earned in the same period 
of time, he plods on very well satisfied. At the end of five years 
he is able to squeeze out less than five hundred dollars per annum, 
and some of this by questionable methods. On again comparing 
his career with that of Webster and Choate, he finds that he is far 
in the background. He places the snuffer over the candle of his 
ambition, extinguishes the flame, and runs for office. He is elected 
to some county position, and receives a salary of a thousand dollars 
or more a year. He becomes a political wire-puller, assists his Con- 
gressman in the campaign, and is rewarded with a temporary posi- 
tion of private secretary. When the fortunes of his leader begin 
to wane, he is helped into one of the departments of the general 
government at Washington, where he seems reasonably certain of 
a salary sufficient to live upon; and here he enters upon a career 
of slow decay for the rest of his active days. 

The case we have cited is, as we have said, a common 
one. The particular details may be varied to suit the difference in 
any other instance which involves the same principle. Thus many 
young men, who start out in business with the determination to- 
become merchant princes, turn to the law; a surprising large num- 
ber of practicing attorneys seek the ministry, and the change of 
purpose thus goes on to suit the probabilities of success in these 
weak characters. These departures from one drift to another are 
not steps in the line of a fixed purpose. Beaconsfield would never 
have played such a part, nor would any other person whose will- 
power was sustained by straightforward thought. This means that 
shifting deviations for temporary policy that start life toward an 
entirely different goal make the mind an instrument of crooked 
purpose, and they show the lack of will-power as well as the lack 
of magnetism. 

We are sure that the goal may be determined upon 
without mistake. Let it be what it may, the will that fixes it 
should be sustained and developed into greater and greater pro- 
portions of power by a straightforward direction of the mind, 
willing to deviate in the steps that are taken, but not in the end to 



226 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

be secured. ISTo person can afford to make a mistake in the selec- 
tion of any great goal, nor can he afford to depart from the attain- 
ment of that goal. These two things are certain. The will is 
rapidly developed by seeing that those mistakes do not happen. It 
is developed by the constant adherence to the purpose already 
formed. Without such a purpose it has no port to make, no path- 
way to pursue across the ocean of life. There is really no such 
thing as a fixed life work; the best journeys are those that keep in 
a well chosen course and make the most of what is at hand. 

The will must never be relaxed in its active urging on- 
ward of the individual career. It should not refuse to adopt the 
best means and the best methods. It should go ahead. Bat, on 
the other hand, it must not set itself upon some particular detail 
that can be circumvented with greater ease than it can be adopted. 
There should be no useless resolving to do something of minor 
value, no wasting of energy on trifles. The young man who had no 
aptitude for the stage, but who studied therefor because some 
phrenologist, who was paid to say something, told him that the 
shape of his head was exactly like that of Edwin Booth's, could not 
be persuaded from his purpose, and he went on to the direst failure 
without one opportunity for winning laurels in histrionics. What 
was his method? He studied and waited. He did not do anything 
aggressive; he made no effort to test himself alone; he merely 
studied in a desultory manner and waited. He shut his mind off, 
refused obstinately to be swerved from his purpose, and waited for 
the prediction to come true. Had he used his will-power as an 
aggressive force, he could have accomplished his end. He could 
have climbed to the top round of that ladder had he been in earnest. 
No obstinate man is in earnest. Aggression, backed by will, makes 
magnetism, and failure is impossible. 



; Heaven is not reached by a single bound; 

Hut we build the ladder, by which we rise. 

From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies. 
tAud zee mount to its summit round by round. 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF WILL-POWER. 227 

§ 450 a 

9 § 

Be in earnest. 

This is the 450th Ralston Principle. To be sincere at all 
times is to be faithful to those trusts which have been placed in 
your keeping by Nature and God. Faculties that might be cul- 
tivated in the highest degree should not be regarded as things for 
trifling. Mind in itself is an organ of vast powers; it may be made 
more commanding year after year if it is nurtured and used aright; 
but it leads its owner down many steep declivities of disappoint- 
ment in life when it is slightingly treated. 

Many a beautiful mind, of promise far exceeding the ordi- 
nary cast, has been warped by the trifling methods of living. The 
trashiest kind of reading presented it as a regular diet, and were 
a remonstrance to be made, the reply would come back to the effect 
that there is but one life to live, and it would be monstrous to 
commit that to seriousness. Such a reply is trifling. Such a life 
is trifled with. Such a mind is useless, as the after story may show 
if it is learned at all. Few care to know it. Here is a voung man 
who sleeps late, rushes through his meals, crams his brain with the 
sensations of the papers while his feet are above his head, and 
spends night till long past midnight hour in reading cheaply 
written novels, and being told that he is destroying his faculties, 
he sneers forth the word "crank," and goes along his course, rotting 
on the way to the grave. Too many men and women are mere 
triflers. 

We believe in sunshine, in cheerfulness, in the happiness 
that leaves no sting. We do not believe in the sickly flush of 
diseased joys that spring out of laziness, lounging, morbid thoughts 
or lecherous habits. Nature gives beauty to the flower that grows 
by the impulses she furnishes, and it is her loathing to behold the 
painted daub on the walls of the brothel. The man or woman who 
shouts "crank" at one who is in earnest is as much out of the joys 
of life as though the worms had already begun their borings 
through the coffin. No such person is sincere. To mock others 
is to chaff at God. Few are those who respect the powers with 
which they are endowed; great is the reward of such respect. 

Many of the great men have left their testimony to the 
importance of being in earnest. "What must I do to succeed in 



228 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

life?" asks an ambitious young man of one who has tasted the 
pleasures of fame through merit. "Always be in earnest," was the 
reply. Another asked a similar question of Burke, who said: "Be 
in deadly earnest." From an acquaintance with the biographies of 
many of earth's favored sons and daughters, the same counsel 
seems to have been the golden thread that controlled them in the 
growing years, when the struggle required the utmost zeal in order 
to win. "Be in earnest" has been the motto of all who have con- 
quered. 

It is necessary to be in earnest in little things as well 
as great. The purpose of the mind should be sincere, honest, clear, 
definite and thorough. Talk to the least of your fellow beings as 
if you believed them worthy of your attention, and be in earnest. 
Do not trifle with body, with health, with mind, or with any of the 
faculties that are entrusted to your care. In every deed, in every 
remark, in play, in sport, in love, in labor, in all things, be in 
earnest. This virtue will stamp itself upon your thought, it will 
affect your daily habits, it will be seen by others, and ere long you 
will be believed in, and your power over others will rapidly become 
recognized. It pays. , 

& ;: - 

| «» I 

Courage is the magnetism of aggressive action. 

This is the 451st Ralston Principle. When you know thai a 
certain course is right, that harm to justice cannot come from it. 
that you will achieve a grander standard by adhering t<:> it. then 
you must not be swerved from it by any considerations of danger or 
fear, and certainly not because it may be inconvenient to do what 
needs to be done. It is not always in moral questions that courag 
claims action, and the mind requires courage to spur it on. Somi - 
times there are crises in business, in society or in friendship that 
can be met only by the energy of this virtue: and in self-conflicts 
as well the power of courage is capable of turning defeat into- 
victory. 

Look at some difficult case and sec what courage will do. 
A young man from the country applied at various places in the 
city for something to do. He was uneducated, unmannered and 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF WILL-POWER. 229 

uncouth. They laughed at him in his home and in the fields about 
when he said lie was going to the large metropolis to get a chance 
to rise in the world, for he was too ignorant to know what to do. 
"You don't know enough of the world to go to the city/' they told 
him. ""Well, I can't learn to swim till I go where there is water/' 
lie replied. Once in the city, lie was laughed at there for his fixed 
country ways. In a few days he was thoroughly discouraged, yet 
he had courage. The only way of keeping alive was by working 
for a dollar a day, and this he did while he struggled to find out 
what was necessary in order to succeed. 

His goal was a fixed one ; he intended to throw off the 
crude habits of country life, a self-inflicted misfortune among most 
farmers, and get up in the world in some honorable way. He knew 
his goal; he did not know the road to it, nor even the direction in 
which it lav. He knew what was honest. It was not setting his 
mind to say that he would do no dishonest act, for obstinacy comes 
from a specific and not a general determination. In two weeks, by 
faithful toil, he proved his value to be more than he received. Any 
person can do as much. He did not labor to be watched; when he 
knew no one could see him, he still kept on, and results justified 
an increase of wages to slight] y more, which, in a month, became 
nine dollars a week. 

Now he began to feel independent. He asked ques- 
tions, took notice of men in better positions than himself, and 
found out something new each day. The goal before him was to 
rise in the world, although he still had no knowledge of how it 
would be done in his case. He wished to go back to his country 
home, and prove to his old friends that they had laughed without 
cause. This lie determined to do. In the class of laborers with 
whom he was associated there was not one who had any ambition; 
most of them saw nothing better than what they then had; they 
lived from day to day, from hand to mouth, and a few hoped for 
good fortune in some way, either by change of political parties in 
power, or some other notion of demagogues. This young man saw 
that they were all destined to be merely low laborers, for they did 
not determine to rise. He made up his mind that will-power must 
set the goal. 

A friend of his at the place where he lodged told him 
that he needed more education. When asked what kind, he was 
informed that grammar, spelling and pronunciation were the essen- 



230 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

tials, to which a knowledge of common arithmetic should be 
added. For a few cents each, copies of the required hooks were 
obtained, and he set to work, unaided, to learn what he could. 
There is not a laborer in New York City who would buy books 
on grammar, arithmetic, pronunciation and spelling, or any one 
of them; and. there are not ten laborers in America who would do 
it; yet all of them howl at the misfortune that keeps them poor. 
When once the will sets the goal of ambition, it takes a heart full 
of courage to execute its behests. 

Any person now bowed down by the misery of poverty 
may find out what to do to get out of the slough, if there is a will 
to get out; and it does not require that the way be seen, known 
or understood. Let but the mind be made up, and the body will 
act. Any human being who is grieved at the unfortunate turn of 
fate that bars the way to success, who wishes to turn this defeat 
into success, who wishes it hard enough to will it, may accomplish 
it in the fullest measure; but there must be a making up of the 
mind that is all earnestness. Few care to do this: they prefer to 
have the golden apples drop in their laps from the clouds over- 
head. The young man from the country had decided to rise; he 
looked with pity on the laborers around him; he knew that they 
could better themselves, for ho felt sure that he could do so in hi? 
own case, which was a hard one; yet how he could not tell. 

He toiled away at the books night after night. The 
spelling book first interested him; he could understand it better. 
Three hours a night are eighteen a week. All outside attractions 
were nothing to him. He had a talk with a nice gentleman, who 
saw his ambition, and who advised him to attend church on Sun- 
days. He followed the advice unostentatiously. He talked with 
men, but did not force himself upon them. "Can a laborer rise in 
the world?" asked a correspondent. "If so. what is the best advice 
in starting to do so?" "Get a few books of common studies; insist 
on learning how to spell, pronounce, talk' grammatically, and do 
ordinary arithmetic; go to church every Sunday: talk to your 
superiors, and find out all you can." Any man, young or old, who 
does this much will soon find himself above the ranks of mere 
physical labor. 

Our young man found that it was not so easy to under- 
stand what was required in pronunciation as in spelling. His plan 
was to read the book through aloud, so that he might hear the 



REALM OF TEE ESTATE OF WILL-POWER, 231 

sound of his voice in uttering the words. lie heard educated men 

talk in various places, and caught the sounds of word-. J I is 
memory thus began to grow. Out of a sermon he would collect 
fully one hundred words, and compare them with the book on 
spelling. Once in a while, though not often, he had the privilege 
of talking on the subject with some person who could give him 
information. After once the ice was broken and he began to under- 
stand the rides of pronunciation, he made rapid progress. Then 
came grammar, which he dreaded. It was all Greek to him. He 
read the book through twice very slowly and aloud. A dictionary 
was necessary, and this he bought. Some introductory words in 
the grammar seemed to be abandoned as the study proceeded, so 
he merely marked the meanings and went ahead into the parts of 
speech, and it was all very dark to him. 

While plodding along in this vale of discouragement, 
he got acquainted with a laborer who could not read. He was so 
ignorant that he could not tell one letter of the alphabet. He was 
about twenty years old, and had come from a mountain home far 
away, where they never saw a book or paper in use. "What are you 
in the city for?" "To get a living." "What will you do after you 
find out that you are able to get a living?" "Don't know." "There 
is but one other thing to do, and that is to die. See these men 
about you? They know nothing. They work with their arms and 
legs. Every one of them could get up higher, but they are not 
willing to use their heads." These remarks came burning out of 
the country boy's heart; they impressed the mountaineer, who 
wanted to learn the alphabet, and he became a sort of pupil of the 
ambitious boy; he called once a week, and the latter found how 
much easier it is to learn a thing himself if he tried to teach it to 
another. This is very true. The little episode turned out to be 
the starting point in a new career, for it sent the mountaineer up 
into the realm of ambition also, and he succeeded in many after- 
steps. 

It was a severe test of the will power, when the grammar 
proved too much for the country boy. He did not like to ask the 
necessary questions of his elders, for he feared to intrude too much 
on their good nature, beyond getting general advice. So he read 
the book through a third time, and in so doing found it possible 
to discern the simple parts of speech, as the article, the noun, the 
pronoun, and sometimes the verb. In this lie aided himself by the 



232 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

practice of copying a sentence and then marking the words that 
lie knew. It was in so doing that he realized his inability to write 
plainly. An old man, who kept a second-hand hook store, told him 
what to buy, and showed him how to hold the pen. It was not long 
before he improved in this art. 

He gained some knowledge of the rudimentary con- 
struction of grammar very soon after this, and was pleased to know 
that he understood every one of the parts of speech. It was with 
unusual pride that he meditated on the fact that no living being 
had given him one bit of light. He had discovered it all himself. 
The use of cases in pronouns had a fascination for him, and he 
learned to say / and he, me and him correctly. This change came to 
the attention of his employer one day. It was also noticed among 
his church friends, who were not altogether cool to him. Such a 
man is bound to attract attention. Will-power never strives alone 
in the haunts of one person's life. Grammar, now that he saw it, 
really changed his use of language to such an extent as to command 
the attention of others, was to him a magnet of attraction. It is 
surprising how rapidly a little bit of learniug will accumulate force 
in its progress. Once he was able to catch hidden meanings, he 
plunged ahead, and found the higher books of rhetoric and litera- 
ture awaiting him, while arithmetic now became easy to understand. 

He was too valuable a man to be lost sight of. A 
vacancy above him soon occurred; and no life is kept crowded 
down when its wings are spread to rise. He was soon earning one 
thousand dollars a year. At this time pride did not trip him. He 
kept to his books all the harder; for, as he once said to his em- 
ployer, lie saw clearly that it was his books alone that took him out 
of a position of nine dollars a week to one worth more than double. 
He found that the little volumes that were everywhere for sale at 
the stores were so written as to enable any person, however stupid, 
to understand them if there was a disposition to do so. "What I 
did not understand, I would read, then lay aside and sometimes 
read again, repeating the process till I did understand it. I also 
started the worst case of ignorance I ever saw along the same road, 
and he has conquered.*' Here he referred to the mountaineer. 
Both careers proved successful in the highest degree. Where was 
the cause? What was the source of that cause? 
i 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF WILL-POWER. 233 

1 «2 I 

Strength of purpose develops magnetism. 

This is the 452d Ralston Principle. The case we have given 
at some length lends its answer to the questions we have asked. 
What could have caused an ignorant country boy to rise out of his 
condition, to acquire an education, to succeed in making a fortune, 
to go back to his old home, pack up his time-worn parents, and 
take them to a sumptuous home in the city? What could have 
done this? Every ignoramus in that country region exclaimed, 
"Luck." This is a false answer. Luck played no part whatever 
in his rise. It had no more to do with it than did the moon or 
the north pole. Luck is sometimes a factor in the turn of events, 
if we call the law of chance by this term; but it came not into the 
life we have mentioned. 

When the pleasures of carousal night after night were 
neglected for the study of books, not for mere information, but 
to really fit the young man for a better plane of labor, there was 
no luck at work. AVhen repeated readings of that abominable 
grammar did not shed light on the science, he did not throw the 
book clown, and go out for a pitcher of beer. What luck was at 
work when he read the volume again? What luck was shaping 
his career when a fellow laborer, blear-eyed through continuous 
soakings of beer, laughed at him because he preferred the com- 
panionship of 'books that he could hardly understand to that of 
men whom he understood too well? Not for a moment in all his 
career did the element of luck play any part whatever. But, says 
some one, his rise to a better position was due to good luck. Not 
by any means. There are all grades of employment, from the 
humblest to the highest, and some one must fill each position 
therein. No person holds a position forever. The place hunts the 
man. He who is ready is the one wanted every time. This toiler 
made himself ready. There was no luck in his dropping into the 
place that awaited him. 

What was the cause of his success? Will-power. But 
what was the origin of that will-power? It was not magnetism. 
It was nothing but a blind energy. This we must examine. Such 
an energy is possessed by many laborers; probably by millions now 



234 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

in this country, who can never get any further along for the reason 
that the spark is lacking. Let ns imagine any one man to be the 
type of these millions who are destined to remain always at their 
present low level. We look into his character, his habits, his good 
qualities and his imperfections, and we find him to be possessed 
of unlimited energy, all running wild. He works hard and faith- 
fully, thinking it will always insure him employment if he does a 
full day's work. He wishes and even hopes to rise in the world, but 
to him the idea of rising is in no way connected with progress, the 
taking of steps, or the movement up into a higher stratum. 

Right here the secret is found, for his life is a drift 
around a whirlpool without direction ahead. When asked if he is 
satisfied with his condition, he almost convulsively shouts, No. 
When the further inquiry is made as to what he hopes for, and how 
he hopes to get it, he invariably says something in this vein: "I 
want better wages and cheaper foods. The pay I get is too small; 
the price I pay for living is too high. Something is wrong in the 
government. They ought to tax the rich more and make them pay 
us more. There will be a political party come to the front some 
day that will do this for us, and ever}' laboring man will vote for 
it." No wonder the fellow is poor and wretched. No wonder the 
millions of toilers are hopeless and tied hand and foot by the cords 
of misery. 

To every one of them there is just the same opportunity 
of succeeding as came to the ignorant country boy, whose story is 
absolutely true. They and he possessed the same common energy; 
but theirs was blind, spending itself in the whirlpool of wasted 
forces; his needed the one instigation to give it magnetism. So 
all energies may be turned into a direction, set going on a road, 
and be made magnetic. What was that spark? It came to him in 
the one idea of rising out of his low condition. It furnished a 
goal. He looked ahead. Other laborers hoped for higher wages, 
lower prices of living, and cheaper beer; things that never occur 
together. This toiler did not look for higher wages in his rank, 
but resolved to get up out of and away from that rank. Thus he 
fixed a goal. 

Toward this goal he looked at all times. His thoughts 
bent to it. He allowed no deviation from that straightforward 
energy of his mind, which saw no other sroal to be desired; not 
temporary ease, not pleasure of the heart, not carousals, riot the 



REALM OF TEE ESTATE OF WILL-POWER. 235 

rainbow-chasing of demagogues who allure toilers away from them- 
selves toward the dangerous shoals of anarchy, which is the real 
purpose of political harangues; he threw all his life into that one 
struggle, which had for its helmsman the straightforward thought 
of rising in the world. Such thinking is sure to develop magnetism, 
and if you do not believe it, try it. Such thinking collects together 
the discordant energies of the mind and body, unites them as one 
puissant army of purpose, and hurls them in solid column against 
the ranks of the enemy of success, breaking the illegitimate array 
into fragments. Try it. 

Nothing is more certain than that most persons possess 
energies which are allowed to run to waste. Nothing is more cer- 
tain than that such energies, if their confusion is allayed, may be 
marshalled into an aggregation of fearful aggression. Here the 
will is needed, and the will is in itself an active progressive force, 
not a standstill energy of the mind; it is an open mind, always 
looking for means to effect an end. Development of the will re- 
quires the cultivation of straightforward thought; the road ahead 
may lead about and deviate a hundred times or more, but its end 
is never abandoned. The will sets the goal of purpose. This is 
the spark that ignites the fire beneath the boiler. This is the one 
distinguishing feature that separates the millions of laborers who 
cannot hope to rise, because they do not decide to rise, from the 
one ignorant fellow who is sure to forge ahead simply because the 
will sets the goal of purpose. He wants, wishes, proposes, decides 
to rise in life; and that is all that is needed to start the magnetism 
of his whole soul, mind and body into the way of succeeding. He 
is in earnest. 

It is not the frothy impulse of a quick nature, but the 
steadfast earnestness of courage. Aggression requires courage. 
Success in anything, large or small, must brush little natures aside, 
for they block the road; and malice barks in proportion as the 
earnest man rises in the world. It takes courage to pass them by. 
One man, a pitiable weakling, says: "It hurts me to find tjiat I 
acquire enemies as I climb higher. I almost wish I had never 
climbed at all." He must know that hatred has existed since the 
beginning of time, and will continue for some centuries yet: and 
no man or woman has lived well who has not felt the sting of 
savage humans among civilization. Courage is not so hard to hold 
under circumstances of success of any kind. It is when the failui 



236 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

come, when the tide hears you away for a while down toward the 
opposite goal, when little things prick up their ears and bite 
viciously at your feet, when a cloud of impenetrable thickness 
shuts out all view of the world about and you are wrapped in the 
gloom of despair; at such times courage is the highest virtue. 

In a way, as a type of needed courage, take the case of 
the country lad, who could not get one ray of light out of his 
grammar. Imagine, if you will, any ignoramus of a laborer taking 
a grammar to look at, much less to study. You and his acquaint- 
ances would laugh at him. Even if not laughed at, if he could go 
away to some room where he would be alone, you can very well 
imagine him squinting at the covers, turning the book upside down 
a few times, hunting for some tobacco and beer advertisements in 
the opening pages, placing leaf after leaf carefully over each other, 
until he gets to a few long words that are hieroglyphics to him. 
then hurling the volume across the room, and settling back in his 
chair, clasping one knee in his two hands, and go to dreaming of 
the time when some political party will bring prosperity to the 
laborer. Yet the fellow has energy. He lacks the will-power to 
set a goal that will cause him to move on. Any goal that is not 
ahead, or that does not require progress, is like a stake in a whirl- 
pool around which one is ever dashing, and which, when reached, 
means nothing. 

Better than leaving a farm and going to the city to add 
to the crowd of non-producers, is the reverse determination of 
staying at home and rising there; for the great centers of popula- 
tion must be fed by farmers; their clothing comes from wool cut 
from sheep raised by farmers, or from cotton cultivated by farmers, 
or from linen spun from flax planted and grown by farmers, or 
from silk made by worms tended by farmers; their shoes come 
from cattle, sheep or goats reared by farmers; their houses are built 
of wood that- is produced outside the cities, and all that is used or 
consumed must come from these sources. The real man brings 
something from the soil; and, great as others may be, there is no 
vocation that can place a human being above the directing genius 
that compels nature to serve him. Yet the reverse seems true. 

Why the noblest of all callings, that which harnesses 
the mighty power of the sun and whips along the elemental steeds, 
should be forced down to the lowest strata of humanity, and there 
degraded, we cannot understand. Many years ago we succeeded in 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF WILL-POWER. 237 

convincing a young man, who sought the gloriee of the legal pro- 
fession as the highest end of living, that God held other professions 

in higher esteem, none being more honorable than that of honest 
farming. The laughter of his friends, the ridicule of his enemies, 

did not deter him from following the advice. Ee made the art of 
farming a noble one. From the soil he won all the coin fort-, all 
the luxuries of life. The same brain energy that can wrest a large 
income from the practice of law can secure a larger one from the 
soil, and the wear and tear are lessened. •*" 

When ignorance directs the plow the house gets a 
mortgage. It requires thought to make an acre yield a hundred 
dollars a year, yet he did it; a business skill is necessary to turn a 
hundred acres into ten thousand dollars, or five hundred into fifty 
thousand dollars; not one farmer in a dozen can get much more 
than twenty dollars from an acre; yet brains can take a fortune 
every year from a farm; and the best of it all is the fact that the 
man whose head holds the brains need not lift a finger. He may 
be in the city much of the time, or in the country amid the scenery 
he has helped to beautify, enjoying the products of nature and the 
healthful air of the fields. 

One more case may be cited as showing the way in 
which a seemingly impossible feat may be accomplished by the 
magnetism of the will. A young man desired above all things else 
to become an orator; not a mere talker, shouter, haranguer or 
demagogue, but a real orator, earnest, eloquent, convincing: not 
that species of speaker that drives the public away or is tiresome to 
listen to, but a man such as those who have attracted great crowd-. 
and the more they talk, the more they are desired. This young 
man at first did not select his goal, therefore he had no magnetism 
in the line of this effort; for it is one of the laws of magnetism that 
the goal must be decided upon. 

The concentration of the energies of the body, includ- 
ing the mind, the nervous system and all the faculties, acts very 
much like the lens that collects scattered rays and directs them 
into a certain fixed channel of force. The sun is hot enough to 
make the blood suffer from its intensity, but it has not sufficient 
heat to set any substance on fire. The steel and flint throw a faint 
stream of delicate sparks that cause the fine finder to ignite, owing 
to its supersensitiveness. The sun cannot ignite the tinder, even 
when its rays are the hottest. A lens collects .Mattered lines of 



•238 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

light, and throws them to a single line, the power of which is due 
to the fact that this single line is the concentrated force of many; 
yet it can set fire to nothing that is not readily ignited. Add to 
this lens another, and still another, till countless thousands of rays 
are focused upon one point, and you can set a ship on fire miles 
away. 

By this it is seen that energies that are scattered are of 
less use by far, and in most respects are quite worthless, compared 
with the united force that is derived from their combined efforts. 
A thousand little powers, helpless in their separation, are resistless 
in their union. The mighty river that bears upon its brow the 
giant craft of nations could hardly float a log on any one of its 
upland streams. It is in exactly this wise that the will-power makes 
man a conqueror when he fixes a goal and concentrates all his 
nature upon the purpose of reaching it. He may become what 
he will. 

Without losing sight of the young man who desired to 
attain the highest success in oratory, and who had to contend with 
difficulties that seemed insurmountable, as we shall soon see, we 
must examine the conditions that give a man the power he requires. 
It must not be supposed that any one thing will accomplish this 
end, nor that so multiform a use as magnetism may be summoned 
by one bend of the rod. There is no single line of training that 
develops this power, except for that single line. All that is said 
in other parts of this volume should be understood and acted upon, 
and a general all-round cultivation of magnetism should be adopted. 



1 «3 I 



We may become what we will. 

This is the -±53d Ralston Principle. Any man, any woman, 
may determine the fate that awaits the unfolding of life's history. 
If you could but know this, and know the method by which you 
■can shape your own career, it would be worth half the years of 
living, would it not? We stand ready to prove the fact even to the 
-uttermost; to prove it in your case, or in the life of any person. 
If you wish the matter put to the test, we will do that. Here is 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF WILL-POWER. 239 

the full explanation, the process of development, the line of action. 
Nor is it so hard as it might seem. 

In the first place it is necessary to assure those of our 
students who are careless in their mental conclusions, that the 
action of the will is easily accounted for hy every-day rules, and is 
not dependent upon the occult powers so-called. To use the will 
is not to exercise faith. What that is may be worthy of discussion, 
but at this place we are considering the simple processes of our 
open, unhidden natures. We need not say more. This book has 
none of that overflow around its statements of mysterious sayings 
and problematical phrases that charlatanry must fall back upon in 
•order to impress. The purpose here is to show how much vitality 
there is in the plainest processes of life. 

You may become what you will, and it makes no dif- 
ference how foreign to your nature the goal may be; if you are 
really in earnest, it is yours. That you must be thoroughly and 
completely in earnest requires no iteration. That much is taken 
for granted. In order to be in earnest it is necessary that you 
believe in yourself and in the possibility of success. Able men have 
.always believed in themselves and in their power to accomplish 
what they undertake. This is not faith, at least not in either a 
religious or an occult sense. It is plain, every-day common sense. 
How absurd it would be to start out for an end that you had no 
•expectation of reaching! 

Suppose the great Englishman who when a lad decided 
that he would be the foremost power in that nation — suppose that 
he really never thought he would succeed; how could he be justified 
in retaining the ambition? It is not a blind faith, a trusting faith, 
to reason out that a certain goal is ahead and within reach of the 
man who is fully in earnest, and who proceeds to reach it by every 
available means. He is not absurd enough to select a purpose that 
he himself discredits; nor is he crazy enough to shut his eyes in 
-choosing, so that he sets out upon an impossible journey by a road 
that leads the other way. He has many reasons for believing in 
himself. 

"The soul's dark cottage, battered and decayed, 
Lets in new light through chinks that time has made. 
Stronger by weakness, wiser men become, 
t/Js they draw near to their eternal home." 



240 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

1 454 | 

The average daily life is surrounded by thousands 
of details. 

This is the 454th Kalston Principle. The man who selects the 
goal of his ambition wins because all the operations of his own 
existence begin to throw their influence his way. This means a 
great deal. There is no silent, mysterious force playing occult 
pranks. We assume that he is active; if he is not, he cannot hope 
to succeed in anything. A magnetic man or woman loves to be 
doing something, to arise in the morning ready and eager to live a 
full day through, to see as many books, persons, friends or not, 
as many transactions and activities as can be well crowded into a 
single day. 

Sometimes these thousands of details appear in what 
is read and in the long procession of thoughts that pass in line 
through the mind; they are pictures of action, and make their im- 
pressions vividly upon the personality. How many things have 
occurred to-day? Oh, a few only; none of importance, you may 
reply. This is not true, unless you are living aimlessly. Take a 
pencil and paper, and note down the myriad activities that have 
been going on all around you; and if none of them touched you, 
your day has been a void. It is not necessary that many of them 
should affect you, but some should interest you. 

It has been estimated that an active man is surrounded 
in his daily life by fully ten thousand details out of winch he could 
draw at will such as he chose; and sometimes it seems as if an 
excessively active life must be centered within a hundred thousand 
details. We write to explain what is meant by this claim, for it 
means much to an earnest individual. Suppose a woman is a lover 
of flowers; she has her books on botany, containing thousands of 
ideas from which she can draw one or more as she pleases: then 
there are references to the science in her ordinary reading: the 
paper, the magazine, the history, the novel, all may in some brief 
way present information within the line. 

Now she sees pictures in books, on the wall, and else- 
where, which are bettered by the broad fields that stretch away to 
make the landscape; and here and there are garden plot- bearing 




REALM OF 'I Hi: ESTATE OF WILL-POWER. 241 

more items of interest, all in the one particular line of her fancy; 

yet these are but a small proportion of the thousands of details that 
lie within her reach. 'No person makes use of a tenth of these; fi 
ever see one-fiftieth of what is taking place; but a magnetic person 
does. He has reason to see and to appreciate the value of what 
transpires; and this leads us to a most important law in the present 
study. 

i i 

1 455 § 

3$ lit 

Magnetism attracts its own kind from surrounding 
details. 

This is the 455th Ealston Principle. Given ten thousand 
details of occurrence in the ordinarily active world of one man's 
life, and a hundred thousand in the day of a very energetic person, 
the question arises, how many of them will touch him? If he is 
a man of magnetism, he will exclude the most, and draw the few 
that are in the line of his interests. This we all know in a general 
way. The banker sees banking events chiefly; the grocer lives in 
an atmosphere of flour, spice, beans and goods of his trade; the 
lawyer watches the courts and human discords; the clergyman has 
an horizon of his own, and its fruitage is church membership, mis- 
sions, donation parties and slippers; the doctor feels the pulse of 
the day's events in new serums, chemicals, powders, internal ex- 
plosives and nitroglycerine pills; and so each sees and seizes details 
that escape all the others. 

Take any example and follow out this law of magnetic 
attraction, and you will see it ever at work shaping the career of 
each individual that comes under its operation. Here is a young 
man who determines to become the judge of a court of high grade, 
not a justice of the peace, nor a criminal magistrate. He aims 
toward the Supreme Bench. If he is fully in earnest, he will get 
to that position; and it is not by any means easy, for such an exalted 
rank requires many, many years of preparation. Yet he will get 
to the goal. He must be in earnest in selecting it. It would be 
the height of foolishness for a man in mature life, without training 
or experience, to select such a goal; he could not be in earnest if he 
did so. But the younger man will succeed in this most difficult of 
undertakings; and it is safe to assert that no person ever set out to 
win this particular end that has failed. 



242 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

The justice of one of the Supreme Courts of this coun- 
try told in private the story of his ambition, and the way it 
worked out. The principle is exactly in accord with ours, and 
the case is fully a representative one. He made up his mind fully 
to reach that goal, and in his own State. He was a student in a 
law office, where books were at hand for study. He desired to 
become a Supreme Court judge. ISTaturally he began to look up 
the duties of the judge, and found that they involved a general 
knowledge of the law, a full knowledge of law libraries and digests 
that told where cases could be readily found, and experience in the 
rules, customs and precedents of practice and procedure. In addi- 
tion to this, the judge must be perfectly familiar with the rules of 
evidence 1 , those that were imperative and those that were discre- 
tionary, . and he must be able to maintain the dignity of the 
office. 

A young man who would like to be a judge is quiet dif- 
ferent from one who is determined to be. The former still has all 
his energies; the latter focuses them upon the one goal, and his 
magnetism becomes powerful and irresistible. It draws out of the 
thousands of daily details those that appertain to his one resolve; 
and it is interesting to see how this is done. Little things that 
are of no value to the general drift of mankind appear to him im- 
portant. In conversation he hears a thousand remarks during a 
single day; and he is where he can hear such as are in his line of 
study, of which number perhaps three or four only are worth re- 
taining. They relate to some judge or some judgment, to some 
unusual decision, or some ruling that has been passed upon in the 
courts above the trial sessions. These are attracted to his mind. 
and held there as the magnet draws little particles of iron from a 
mass of dirt. 

Not only in the thousand remarks of an active day, 
but in the numberless items of his reading will he catch such ideas 
as add to his general knowledge and grow into his being. Xo other 
individual on earth collects as much under one idea, unless the 
same determination has been formed; there may be fifty thousand 
men with a similar ambition, but not with a full mind made up to 
achieve it. With him it is different. He is in deadly earnest: and, 
day by day, there is an absorption of ideas out of the great fund 
of details that surround his life. It is necessary to practice law. 
He does this in all the integrity of his soul. In every trial he is 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF WILL-POWER. 243 

armed with a flood of decisions. When the settled law of his own 

State is undisputed he does not drag in the far away decisions of 
other States and thus win dishonestly, although the opportunity to 
do so is everywhere offered him. Thus a case was won in a trial 
court by a firm of lawyers who cited over sixty decisions of the 
far Western States, all agreeing to their proposition, while the other 
side did not know enough to look into the decisions of the State 
where the trial occurred, for they were the other way and took 
precedent. 

This young man was always armed with the law, and 
amazed those about him. The judges came to respect his own 
sincerity, for never had he tricked them by trying to force down 
their legal throats a wrong conclusion, if there was such to be had. 
He had, in the first ten years of his practice, won the admiration 
of every lawyer and every judge within the wide range of his 
acquaintance, and many a judge remarked that when he started in 
to state the law, he was sure to succeed. His positions were tenable, 
subject to human error, of course, and always as liable to be wrong 
on problematic points as other learned minds; but he had a judicial 
clearness that enabled him to get the right logic out of mooted 
questions, and this was the result of his years of absorption. A 
remarkable thing above all was the fact that he cared more to 
assist the courts in arriving at the true conclusion than he did for 
winnig his clients' causes. 

To view this method in the abstract, one who is not alto- 
gether honest might say that it is the lawyer's first duty to win Ms 
case, as his fees and living come from his clients, and his obligation 
to them is reciprocal. Therefore he should let the law's correction 
come as a secondary consideration. There are two reasons why this 
suggestion is not a worthy one. In the first place, a lawyer ought 
to be an honest man; and if such are hard to find in the profession, 
it does not follow that honesty will not succeed better than first 
successes. In our opinion there is no real magnetism unless it is 
honest; for a dishonest man cannot make himself in earnest and 
thoroughly sincere, no matter how hard he may try to crowd the 
belief into his mind. If any person doubts the wonderful power of 
an honest, actively aggressive life, let him try it. In the hands of 
able men integrity is a magnet capable of controlling all opposing 
interests. Not to pretenders, not to those who pose as modest and 
sincere, nor to that class of clever feigners of every noble virtue, 



244 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

does mankind pay homage long; but to him who is proved honest 
will tribute come. In a world where white souls are almost un- 
known, in an age of rarest truth, the honest man, who couples 
ability with his deeds, must draw mankind to him. He may control 
them at will; and experience shows that even the hypocrite, rinding 
integrity such a magnet, has educated himself to become honest. 
So many a pretender, who has joined the church for fraudulent 
ends, has finally been truly converted and has repented. 

For another reason the lawyer who wishes rather to see 
justice done than to win his client's cause, will increase his practice. 
Few such lawyers exist. Most of the bar are human, and love the 
limited glory of having won the case in question. Says a rich man: 
"You secured the verdict for me. You are a clever lawyer. But your 
methods were not sound. I shall hesitate to employ you again, 
unless I have a very bad case." It may be known that capable 
business men are even keener in mind than the best lawyers; 
they know how much real integrity an attorney has, and they are 
shy of him in the future. Trickery may be concealed from the 
jury, but never from the court and rarely from the client. There 
are some lawyers in existence, though very few, who will not ad- 
vance a wrong legal proposition to the consideration of the courts, 
and they are safe counsellors. They will not go into court on a 
side that must depend upon such a wrong, and the public soon 
finds it out. Litigants who wish to win when wrong, may employ 
the other class of attorneys; but every sensible human being who 
is in the full possession of his faculties desires to know the lazv in 
advance, and to act accordingly. " 

Too often, altogether too often, the lawyer advises his 
client that the law is on his side, or is sufficiently in doubt or un- 
settled to warrant making the fight, when he well knows that he 
will be defeated unless he can change the facts a trifle, and then 
he commits subornation of perjury in order to save himself from 
his client; and most clients are willing to vary the truth just a 
little bit, a harmlessly little bit, rather than be forced to yield to a 
hated rival. All this is wrong. It never touches the honest lawyer, 
for he will not permit it to. Being capable, learned and truthful, 
lie becomes a power in his profession; and, wherever there have 
lived such men as these, they have reaped larger fortunes, won 
greater victories, and held higher honors in their communities 
than the so-called smarter class. 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF WILL-POWER, 245 

We see the same principles holding true in the life- 
history of the man who determined to become a judge of I 

Supreme Court. What were his chances of succeeding? He had 
ability, not only in large degree, but in the very largest, and this 
must have followed from the fact that he kept himself constantly 
at work acquiring knowledge in his line. He had a judicial mind, 
which means that lie could sift facts, dispel confusion, get at the 
pith of a controversy, and apply the logic of the law in such a way 
that its judgments were right. Some one has said that a judicial 
mind is the ability to discern what the law ought to be when it 
is not known by precedent decisions. At any rate, such a mind is 
acquired from habit and study, and it takes years of careful exam- 
ination into the reasoning of courts to get at the true lines of logic. 
But it is attainable by him who wills. 

Then he was quick to get at his knowledge. This was 
also an acquired talent. Over and far above all else, he was honest. 
This was publicly known. It could not have been concealed after 
a leading lawyer, tired and sick with the nauseating trickery of his 
profession, arose in court one day and made the following state- 
ment: "The facts in this case are agreed to; there remains nothing 
but the law to be settled. The learned counsel confronts me with 
an array of decisions that I am satisfied completely remove all 
doubt. I would not be true to myself, nor to the court, if T. con- 
tended against them when I cannot do so in my own conscience. 
However, I am free to say that, when this cause was first brought 
to my attention by counsel, who came into it before I did, I advised 
my clients and their attorneys that they were in the right. I had 
found decisions that seemed to incline to that view; but what I did 
in a casual way my learned brother has done in another way not 
possible to counsellors who are rushed in their work by a practice 
that is far too extensive to be exact. I will submit what decisions 
I have found/' There was no doubt he had done all he could for 
his clients; yet he seemed discouraged at the greater scope of in- 
vestigation employed by the lawyer to whom he referred. 

The end was now in sight. No judge has opportunity 
to read up on all the questions before him. He is wearied by court 
trials, but yet must study into the long hours of the night to keep 
within the plainest lines of duty owed to litigant.-, and here he 
stops in despair. Lawyers, by briefs and references, call his atten- 
tion to precedents; but these must be read to ascertaia the precise 



246 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

points on which former decisions of law courts have rested, and 
much reading and study are necessary. The lawyer whose history 
we are taking as an example was clear-headed enough to see that 
a general, indiscriminate practice of his profession would bar the 
way to the goal he desired. He said that he would earn less money, 
and confine himself to the larger cases which presented mooted 
legal propositions, for then he would keep in touch with the moods 
of the highest courts. To his surprise he found himself employed 
by litigants who sought him for just such purpose, and the fees 
were much larger than they would have been had he taken a greater 
number of clients. Lawyers feared him, for he was too thorough, 
too exact, too exhaustive in his researches to please them. They 
worked hard to place him on the bench of the trial courts, the jury 
courts as they are known. His aim was the Supreme Bench. When 
the appointment came, he declined it. His income was more than 
ten times its salary. Again it was offered him, after a lapse of years, 
and again he declined it. He had won the. goal, and more beside. 
He will yet accept such a position if his views do not materially 
change. 

Any person may accomplish that which the will dic- 
tates. If we had cited the case of the young man who sought to 
become a great lawyer, we might have shown by easier methods the 
certainty of winning such a goal. We went further, and presented 
the resolve of one who aimed at an office that is seemingly an im- 
possible one, as it depends so much on the accident of fortune of 
elections and appointments. Let us see how much chance is in- 
volved. When a man has made his mind great with a knowledge 
of the law; when he is quick, ready, apt, clear, forcible and im- 
pregnable in his legal reasoning; when he can protect the interests 
of litigants by correct judgment; when he is feared by the great 
lawyers of the bar; when he is known to be honest; when, if he were 
judge, his decisions would save many protracted appeals to higher 
courts with .their endless costs, how long do you think the profes- 
sion or the great public will allow that man to remain in private 
life? A determined man may acquire all the qualities we have 
named; he is then sought after for the position on the bench. 
History has proved this to be always true; and there is to-day room 
waiting in every State and in the national courts for such men. 
The goal is attainable. Will what you will, it is yours if you are 
in earnest. a Be in earnest in the exercise of good judgment when 



REALM OF TEE ESTATE OF WILL-POWER. 247 

the goal is selected; do not choose the impossible, for that would 
dethrone your earnestness; go straight on to the end. It is you 
We come now back again to the young man who wished 

to rise to eminence in oratory. The person in question was in no 
wise adapted to that profession. J I is personal appearance was 
awkward, uncouth and in every way against him. Some elders 
told him that his face and shape of the head indicated some 
mechanical occupation as best suited to him. Still his heart was 
set on the idea that he did not belong to the laboring rank- for 
life; he had ambition for something higher, and knew nothing more 
to his taste than oratory. Under advice of a successful speaker, 
who said that the use of speech developed the art, he attended the 
meetings of a debating society with disastrous effects, not for the 
society, but for himself. He had not then learned of the fact that 
Daniel Webster, the greatest orator the world ever produced, had 
failed utterly in his first address; nor that Beaconsfield's first 
speech in Parliament was a dismal defeat. He had none of the 
elements of oratory, except the determination to be one. 

It is surprising that with nothing to encourage him he 
ever kept his course on toward the goal, which in fact he had not 
fully selected. All his friends and family were against his plan; all 
his faults of body, of voice and of mind were barriers to success, 
and it seemed as if all the great orators of history were made of 
stuff quite different from his own nature. All this while he wisely 
kept at work earning a living, for the study of oratory does not 
much interfere with any other matter. One night, after listening 
to the burning words of a great speaker, and being thrilled as no 
other influence could do, realizing that nine-tenths of the power of 
a thought is in the way it is uttered rather than in its composition, 
he went out under the starlit sky, and walked through the fields 
far from the town, as if his nature needed the fullest breadth for 
the deciding of this momentous question, and there and then he 
selected his goal. He would become a great orator. 

Once his mind was made up the power of magnetism 
was felt coursing through all his veins. This of itself surprised 
him. The next day he seemed a giant within himself. It was a 
novel experience. It made him see the world through larger 
glasses than the orbs of his own vision. He was to himself the 
central figure, and the map of the earth started from his feet and 
radiated in all directions to the farthermost limits. This was con- 



248 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

ceit, he thought, and began to fight it down; but it made him 
humbler toward his fellow beings, so he believed it to be rather a 
sense of responsibility under the great pledge he had made to his 
life. Still the magnetism that followed this concentration of his 
energies upon one focus was distinctly felt, and could not be deemed 
aught else than the force of his will. It was a grand experience. 
It seems strange to you who read this that magnetism does spring 
up from so simple an act; but when a person determines to reach 
a certain goal, and the will-power decrees it, the act is not simple. 
When the countless energies of a human being are whipped into 
one concentrated and concerted line of action, the result must of 
necessity be powerful; and this is what the will is capable of doing. 

Now arose the influences described under our principles. 
His life, like that of every earnest person, was surrounded by thou- 
sands of details, from which his magnetism was to draw such as its 
interest might attract. He heard much of great orators, he read of 
them, he saw the essentials in part that went to make them im- 
pressive. Little things filled his mind, each of no value alone, bur 
in combination they rounded out the structure of his thoughts. 
Then he caught ideas that shed rays of real light upon his purpose. 
It was easy to listen to speakers, for there were two or more op- 
portunities for hearing pulpit orators on Sundays, and other occa- 
sions during the week. Then a majority of the lawyers of his 
county came to court sooner or later, and found it necessary to 
address juries, to which might be added the customary political 
harangues in which men tried to see who could outdo all others in 
the elasticity of the truth. 

To sum up in this part of his observation, he came to the 
conclusion that ninety-nine speakers out of every hundred were . 
exceedingly tiresome and worse than useless. He saw juries writh- 
ing under the wearisome talks of attorneys; he saw congregations 
get sleepy under the dutiful regime that compelled them to listen 
to sermons that were altogether tiresome, lacking all charms of 
magnetism and gradually keeping would-be worshippers at home 
as the only means of defence; he found lecturers growing un- 
popular because they struggled to hold their influence over 
audiences, not by reason of their oratory, but by their sensational 
babvisms, their monkev-iokes and their exaggerated facts — the 
three ideas of modern lecturers who do not use the stereopticon for 
holding the interest of auditors (?) who see rather than hear. The 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF WILL-POWER. 249 

false orator was a shouter. Small boys and timid women were in- 
duced to believe that noise was oratory, and they did not care for it. 

Here were elements of discouragement enough to 
drown out the laudable ambition of any person, and they have kept 
most of the best men out of this most exalted profession, leaving 
the cheap talkers to prove to the public that oratory is not a pleas- 
ing art. Would he, or should, he, refuse to follow out the line of 
his ambition because it was degraded by haranguers and maudlin 
shouters? This inquiry seemed like a stopping place; but he did 
not halt long. What was true oratory? he asked himself over and 
over again. He did not dare to ask others, for he feared their 
ignorance, and knew they were not able to speak from a knowledge 
of the truth. The inquiry was an important one — What was true 
oratory? 

He tried hard to secure such an answer as would give 
him the real facts, and these he very much desired as guides to Iris 
future conduct. He traveled to large cities to hear famous orators, 
and to analyze them; to listen to better lecturers than came to his 
town; to attend the great churches, where more successful speakers 
had drifted by the law of gravity; and in this way he obtained 
better ideas. One man was an elegant enunciator; he spoke his 
vowels, consonants, syllables, words, phrases, clauses and sentences 
with a polished and beautiful clearness that was charming, and it 
almost seemed as if this were the secret after all. He had read in 
books that humanity was distinguished from the lower animals by 
the power of articulative speech, and this particular speaker had 
developed such power to its highest art. Could it be that perfect 
enunciation made the orator? He reasoned it out, and suspended 
his judgment until he could go further in the analysis. 

Next in the charms of speech came an orator who did 
not use the common run of voice so often heard among the less 
effective speakers. One man had a very high pitch, and although 
he varied to some extent, he made it his prevailing voice; and the 
more he shouted, the higher up the scale the voice went, until every 
ear was sore and every brain irritated by the harsh screech. Then 
came the resolution never to inflict such pain upon his audiences. 
Another speaker had a more agreeable pitch; it was located in the 
middle part of the range, and this was a tremendous relief from 
the other fellow who went so high. Still, when he got to shouting, 
as most of the failures do, the pitch would tend upward a little 



250 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

and was correspondingly tiresome, even painful. He asked himself, 
what use was it to inflict soreness upon the sensitive nerves of the 
audience, when the chief purpose of oratory was to charm and to 
win. It would be just as reasonable to court a beautiful girl by 
thrusting pricking needles in her ears; such courting would not 
win her. He could see one reason why oratory was on the decline, 
why juries were uncertain factors in courts of justice, and why 
religion was suffering so terribly at the hands of modern preachers. 
He could easily guess why John Wesley and George TVhitefield were 
able to make hundreds of thousands of converts, and change the 
history of all England by the magnetism of their voices. 

One more speaker aroused his interest. It was one 
who had no note in his voice lower than the middle tone. He was 
more popular, for the voice was incapable of producing pain. Think 
of that in oratory! A man who causes the least pain is the most 
popular; or, in reality, the least unpopular. As long as churches 
endure and jury trials are ordered under constitutional law, so long 
will some portion of humanity be coerced into listening to speeches, 
and perhaps in daily life the monotony of duties will make even the 
lecture field a welcome change with all its pangs. This was the 
way he reasoned. Discouragement was the natural consequence of 
such discoveries. Men, bright in some of the matters that involved 
the exercise of judgment, lacked common sense enough to know 
that a harsh voice, a one-pitched voice, an unmodulated voice, or a 
shouting , voice could not serve any of the legitimate uses of the 
mind. Most persons who fail in life, when expecting success, are 
blind to the essential fault. 

There was one man who really charmed his hearers 
by the pleasant variations of his voice. It was not confined to the 
low register, like a lion growling in a cavern from which he could 
not get free; it was not kept in the middle realm of the scale: it 
used the upper notes rarely, but it played like a great organ through 
all the marvelous beauties of song, leaping from note to note as 
the meaning demanded, and blending the whole into one har- 
monious expression. This was one of the uses of modulation. He 
noted the fine effects of pleasure produced by the quiet touches of 
the lighter tones, the solid stamp of character in the sturdy timbres 
that required no shouting to make them impressive, the thunder 
peals in the occasional bursts of power, and the lightning of mag- 
netism that sent its flashes over the whole structure; and this 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF WILL-POWER. 251 

pleased him. So he began to think that enunciation, that perfect 
coinage of vowels, consonants, syllables, words, phrases, clauses, 
sentences, groups and paragraphs, each in the proper die, each, set 
forth in place and proportion to suit the character of the thoughts 
with which they were burdened, was the first essential of oratory, 
especially as it stood for the best presentation of that one distin- 
guishing gift that separated man from the brutes, while modulation 
was the second essential, carrying as it did the charm of variation 
in the music of speech. 

By this time his attention was attracted to the tones of a 
voice in a man whose every note was peculiarly rich. Then he 
asked himself, — Is it possible that one human voice may be so dif- 
ferent from another; so different from all others? Is it not made 
by the larynx, and is not every larynx made by the Creator? How, 
then, can one voice be harsh, crude, rought, raw, rasping, aspirate, 
breathy, piping, twangy, scratchy, or something else, while an- 
other is rich, melodious, resonant, clear, fine, beautiful, exquisite, 
and silvery in tones? This was a serious problem. It betokened 
an examination into the well-known art of voice-building, to see- 
if such defects were curable. What was his own voice? It was un- 
pleasant. JSTo one cared to hear it. He attended still his debating 
society, but he was rarely ever sought for his powers of speech, and 
what he did say seemed to assist in thinning out the attendance. 

He talked with some acquaintances who had been 
trained by teachers, and he learned enough to ascertain that a 
slight improvement had been made, but not as much as might have 
been had the pupils taken interest in themselves. Not one in a 
hundred make the progress that is possible under such help. He 
learned from good authority that a new voice could be built in two 
years, and he went to work upon it. The larynx changes its size, 
weight, strength, force and character with the training it receives; 
but the real nature of the voice is in the instrument as a whole that 
produces it, and this instrument is the pharynx and mouth, the 
hard palate or sounding board, the soft palate or muffler, the reso- 
nant chamber, and much else. He worked hard. Little by little 
he acquired a new voice; by changes so slight as to be unobserved, 
he took on another character in tone; he had an instrument of a 
million strings; he could use the timbres, the qualities, the stresses, 
the degrees of pitch, force and time; he found that there were 
mental colorings that gave meaning to sound, and emotional color- 



252 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

ings that stamped the heart and soul upon his language, and the 
more he delved, the more he saw ahead of him to acquire. It was 
all wonderful. 

Surely the art of speech was not one to be considered the 
birthright of every fellow who thought he could talk because he 
had a voice and something to say. When our would-be orator had 
discovered the value of the many acquisitions by which the thoughts 
are expressed, he believed that the secret was his; but, alas! he had 
a still longer road ahead of him. The arts and embellishments 
served to furnish the best channels for his thoughts, but what were 
the thoughts themselves worth? The merchant marine is best 
served in its carrying of goods by the most convenient and most 
effective means of transportation; canals, rivers, seas, lakes and 
oceans on which to journey, and every variety of ship in which to 
store the merchandise; but the real value of the latter, the source 
of its supply and the ports to which it is to be conveyed, are even 
as important as the means of conveyance. He found a parallel 
truth in oratory. 

The question then arose, which was the better of the two ? 
He studied orators, and analyzed their subject-matter and its man- 
ner of delivery. In such cases as those of Edward Everett and 
Eufus Choate he found that the charm is entirely lost in the absence 
of the speakers, and this he attributed to the magnetism with which 
they presented their thoughts. Among living orators he found that 
some had very good matter but wretched manner; others had poor 
matter, and one only of the many effective means of delivery; yet 
all had the audacity to pose as representative speakers. He saw, 
he realized, he felt in every fibre of his being what a magnificent 
power that man would be who could combine the thoughts of 
highest value in sentences of transcendent skill, and utter them in 
those best uses of the voice that nature with a lavish hand would 
gladly bestow upon him who was willing to toil for the guerdon. 
Over all there was needed the inspiring force of magnetism that 
lighted up the man, the mind, the thought, the language and the 
graces of art, making them a combined power not to be resisted by 
any counter human energy. 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF WILL-POWER. 253 

I 456 I 

Closing the mind injures it. 

This is the 456th Balston Principle. In a number of ways 
this law has been referred to in the present volume. The will- 
power is an active and aggressive energy, a throttle open with a 
guiding hand upon it, never relaxing its control. A closed mind 
may be pictured in one or two illustrations, either as a horse balky 
and moveless, or running away unguided, or else as a locomotive 
stalled and stationary against all efforts to start it, or sent out with 
steam on, and no person in the cab to control it. The closing of the 
mind is not a shutting of it up against all efforts to move it, but a 
set action or inaction that admits of no alteration. 

The refusal to change an opinion is a closing of the 
mind, for it is not open to influences either of right or wrong. In 
exactly the same sense the determination to do a certain thing, or 
to pursue a certain course of action, closes the mind when it refuses 
to desist, stop or change its method of progress. In other words, 
it is equivalent to saying that this particular thing shall be done, 
even if I know it to be wrong, or the plan of action I have entered 
upon ceases to meet with my approval. "When I say a thing I 
mean it/ 5 says the shallow mind. "Everybody knows that what I 
promise to do I will fulfil," says another. Here is a vast difference. 
Nothing can be more praiseworthy than the fulfilment of all proper 
pledges, promises and appointments. The business of life depends 
upon that. 

The mind is excused from every improper loud agree- 
ment, contract, promise or threat. The law states as much. A 
large number of contracts are annulled by the courts. A note even, 
which is a commercial bank bill in some of its effects, is set aside as 
between the maker and payee, if made under mistake, in error, for 
lack of sufficient consideration, through deceit, or is obtained by 
other improper means. But the kind of mental closing to winch 
we refer is that which takes away the continual watchfulness of the 
judgment and stops the motion of the will. A potentate said: "I 
will slay the first person I meet." He met his daughter, and slew 
her; not for any fault of hers, not to aid himself or his people, but 
simply because he had said he would. No pledge, however solemnly 



254 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

made, can rise to the dignity of even the smallest obligation when 
its purpose, its method of execution, or its effect is useless or wrong. 

When the Roman lawmaker made death the penalty of 
an offence, and his son was the first offender, he was right in order- 
ing his execution if the law was right and the penalty not too 
severe in any case; he should not exempt his son from a desert 
which some other man's son would have to meet, although he had 
the power to save him. We are now dealing in questions of abstract 
justice, but are free to say that the parent is always justified in 
saving the life of his offspring, no matter what the offence or how 
•deep the shade of guilt. In blood there is no sin that merits death. 
The family ties are stronger than all laws of earth. Much less is 
it justifiable to keep a foolish pledge. 

The fulfilment of any proper agreement, promise or 
appointment is a matter of necessity. !N"one such must ever be 
broken if there is a possibility of preventing the breach. It often 
requires a constantly open mind to avoid disappointment in such 
matters. All persons should know what agreements are pending, 
what appointments remain to be fulfilled. It is wrong to make 
•one, then shut the mind in f orgetfulness and pay no further atten- 
tion to it. Too many persons are careless in a matter of this kind. 
A promise is made to a friend; the time comes around when its 
execution is due, and the promiser is totally oblivious of the fact; 
the friend may know that the breach was unintentional, yet the 
same degree of respect and confidence will never be shown again. 
Weak it was to make the promise and close the mind to it, weaker 
still to show no concern over the loss of trust that must follow. 

Parents are freely willing to make all sorts of promises 
to their children, but when they shut their minds to the keeping 
of them, an injury has been done to themselves and to the little 
ones. On the other hand, the continual making of threats is re- 
ducing the magnetic quality of the mind. Most threats made to 
children are abandoned. "If 3 r ou do that I will surely whip you," 
says a parent. The child does the thing inhibited, but does not re- 
ceive the whipping. Seeing thafe the threat has no potency, it goes 
on, day after day, defying its parents, and soon becomes unruly. The 
question of governing children has many phases. A proper threat 
of punishment should be fulfilled if the child merits it. An im- 
proper threat should be abandoned, as where the mother said: "If 
you touch that flower I will whip you until you cannot neither 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF WILL-POWER. 255 

stand nor sit." The child did touch the flower, and did not reach 
that condition in which it was impossible to stand or sit. Another 
mother said: "If you speak one more word I will punish you." 
We cannot conceive of any situation where the utterance of a word 
requires punishment, and there is no necessity of keeping the terms 
of the threat. Better than these methods of governing children is 
that which employs magnetism and needs no penalties. 

We trust that the difference between closing the mind 
against doing a thing and against ceasing to do it is clearly seen. 
The effect is the same in its injury, for it involves the same prin- 
ciple; and one is as stubborn as the other. Thus if a person refuses 
to consider a matter that requires attention, or if he will not look 
into it far enough to see whether it requires attention or not, he 
closes his mind; while, on the other hand, if he decides to do a 
thing and goes ahead blindly to the end, or persists against Ins 
judgment in the attempt to do it, he likewise closes his mind, 
though against the ceasing of it, which is in no way at variance 
with the principle. 



§ s 

¥ 457 ¥ 

S S 

Discretion is the magnetism of judgment. 

This is the 457th Ealston Principle. Most mistakes cause 
regret; some repentance, others remorse. All are detrimental to 
the union of the energies of life. The confusion and scattering of 
these powers necessarily bring disturbance in the forceful run of 
magnetism, especially if a reversal of action or a complete rear- 
rangement is required. Discretion is a rare gift, but it is a magnetic 
one. It is often cultivated by the weighing of results under the 
standard of past experience, generally of others. 

Nothing can be more satisfactory than the skilful judg- 
ing of probable consequences; and few things give a man more con- 
fidence in his mental powers than to find he had formed correct 
opinions. It is not at all essential that the element of guesswork 
or the law of chance be depended upon, for they involve the flavor 
of lottery, and the more one indulges in that flavor, the less he will 
develop his powers of judgment and discretion. It is true that 
when these efforts come to a standstill, and all ahead is clouded 
and dark, there can be nothing done but to await the turning of 



256 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

the hand of fate. . Here the skilful mind sees the alternative, and 
prepares to accept either without loss. 

In the anticipation of trouble the magnetic person uses 
all the discretion possible, looking at every kind of outcome. He 
says, or acts in effect as if to say, that he will do his best to avert 
the misfortune; but if it must come, he reasons thus: "It will 
occur in a certain way; or, if not so, in another way; or else in a 
third. If it should happen in the first way, I will act so and so 
to meet it; if in the second way, I will change my plans, and give 
it a welcome by doing thus and so; but if it comes in the third 
possibility, I shall meet that by such and such methods." It will 
be seen that he is not to be surprised. Every futurity has one, two 
or more chances of happening; and discretion reasons out what 
these are, how they will befall and the probable effects. This much 
being understood, the next thing is to learn what to do in any 
event, so as to meet the exigencies. Thus discretion not only 
teaches a man to avoid mistakes and troubles when they are merely 
portending or are unnecessary if due precaution is taken, but it 
teaches him to be prepared in advance for trouble that cannot be 
averted. When it arrives, it is generally too late to meet it with 
a minimum degree of annoyance. It is a stitch in time that saves 
nine. 

The use of discretion is one of the bulwarks of success in 
the career of every man who rises in the world by reason of his 
native ability. This principle is seen with the lawyer in his prac- 
tice. One of the keenest attorne} T s was answering the statement 
that the advocate who had the final argument in a case always had 
the advantage. The counsel for the plaintiff in a civil action, or 
the prosecuting officer in a criminal trial, addresses the jury last, 
at least of the lawyers. In some States the judge delivers his 
charge before the summing-up speeches of the lawyers are made; 
in other States he is required to follow them, so that the erroneous 
effects, if any, may be counteracted. The warmth of effort and of 
appeal must come from the men who strive to win for their clients. 
The lawyer for the defence does his best: all the surprises, all the 
strong points of the cause have been quietly conserved, and he 
makes mountains of them in his eloquent speech. Then the 
attorney on the other side proceeds to demolish the effect. 

It has been frequently said of Daniel Webster and Rufus 
Choate, who were undoubtedly the giants of their day in the legal 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF WILL-POWER. 257 

profession, that whichever side was in the right would win when 
these two advocates opposed each other in the same ca.se. In one 
instance, Webster was on the wrong side, for the litigant who is 
at fault needs a strong lawyer to save him; but so hard d'A Li 
light that Kufus Choate declared it took him a whole day in his 
final speech to undo the effect of Webster's great address to the 
jury. This shows that the last speech is not always the easier in a 
trial. But when a man is in the right; when his lawyer is not the 
abler of those engaged in the struggle; when he must sum up to 
the jury, and then be followed by an address of tremendous power, 
skill, adroitness and fallacy of such a nature that the common 
minds of the jury are unable to extricate the truth from this en- 
tanglement, then justice fails, unless the defendant's counsel is 
equal to the danger. || »j 

r Solid men who are not accounted great or brilliant 
have, by their discretion, been able to thwart these influences. Said 
the lawyer to whom we have referred: "The advocate who speaks 
last to a jury has the advantage only when his opponent is careless 
in the preparation of the case; otherwise the defence is in the best 
position. I remember that the hardest victories I have won have 
been in cases where I appeared for the defence and had the most 
eminent lawyers against me. I borrowed trouble, as I call it, though 
I mean that I anticipated trouble, and prepared to meet it. I 
never allow myself to be surprised in a trial if I can avoid it. My 
plan is to go into my office at night and alone, and there address 
the jury aloud in my imagination. I take the opposite side of the 
-7 case. Talking aloud excites thought, makes new ideas and gets the 
machinery of the mind in operation. I have a pencil and a writ- 
ing pad. When an idea of force comes to me, I write it down at 
once. I do not wait a minute. The best thoughts come out of 
the everywhere and are evanescent. I secure many valuable things 
in this way. I tear the defence to pieces. I picture my client as 
the man who is wrong, and the plaintiff as the one who is right. 
I invent, by every kind of ingenuity, the points that must most 
impress the jury. Now, in an ordinarily important trial, the sum- 
ming up is limited to an hour on each side; yet I put in three or 
four hours, and out of the mass of points I make I find a certain 
number of strong ones that are really the most essential to that 
side. A new light comes to me; I see through the plaintiff's case, 
as though it were transparent. I see what must be the position, 



258 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

or at least what ought to be if the counsel for the plaintiff is 
thoroughly familiar. In the greatest of such causes I have talked 
to imaginary juries in my office a half dozen nights or more, to 
get the other side exhausted of all its points. When the trial is 
reached in the courts, I know more about the plaintiff's case than 
his attorney does, as I have several times proved. I anticipate all 
his argument, and generally all his testimony, though some bits of 
evidence cannot be foreseen. Why, in that last cause, tried a 
month ago, I spoke for the defence three full hours, closing just 
as the court adjourned late in the afternoon, the worst time of all 
for a defendant to stop talking to the jury. I was forced to this 
by the strategy of the plaintiffs lawyer, who kept his dilatory 
arguments going till noon time. Yet, in my speech, I covered all 
the ground of the defence; I anticipated all the points the very 
able advocate would make in his address of the next morning; I 
answered them very fully, even exhaustively, and I told the jury 
quite vividly the very points he would present to them; and 
although he had all night to get his offset to this, he could do 
nothing but go over the ground I had covered. He labored very 
hard to make the points appear new, but he failed utterly, and 
when the jury had retired he said to me, very savagely, 'Which side 
of this case are you on, I would like to know;' meaning that I had 
argued both sides." The action of so keen a mind must be ascribed 
to his discretion in foreseeing events by analysis, and preparing to 
meet one alternative or the other. 

The same results have been attained in matters not 
relating to court trials, although they present the story of life 
in all its forms. Edwin Booth found, on one of his tours, that his 
costumes and scenery had parted company on the way to a certain 
town, the former going in one car by a wrong train, and the latter 
in another car by another wrong train. He was assured that both 
would be on hand in time for the performance. Instead or worry- 
ing unnecessarily about the affair, he first ascertained what could 
be done to hurry them on. A number of telegrams were sent, and 
no stone left unturned; so all was done that could be accomplished 
in this direction. Then he imagined himself on the sta°-e with- 
out scenery and without costumes suited to the character; or with 
the scenery, but with no costumes; or with the costumes but no 
scenery. Then he and his manager discussed these possible situa- 
tions, and prepared to meet each in turn. In the town in question 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF WILL-POWER. 259 

there were no costumers, and the theatre itself had but three 
regulation ^scenes. These things are known in advance. One of 
the regulation seems was a wood or landscape consisting of some 
trees and a stretch of country; but nothing in the play called for 
that. Another was an ocean view, called an horizon by actors. 
The third was an interior, called a fancy chamber. Only this last 
could he of service in the play in question, which was the Merchant 
of Venice. The first act opens in a street in the city; the landscape 
scene and the ocean could not picture the canal or the street for 
them, and the fancy chamber did not suit either of them or the 
subsequent movement of the play. Here was a vexing problem. 
If no costumes came, it was decided that an explanation should 
be made to the audience, and the actors go on in their ordinary 
clothes, while the stage should be set in an exterior and the per- 
formance called al fresco, or in the open air. If the scenery came, 
and not the costumes, it was decided to allow the company to wear 
their ordinary clothes, while Mr. Booth appeared in a black gown, 
which he might easily borrow from a friend whom he knew, and 
who had one that had been worn there by a supernumerary on a 
previous occasion. By this planning in advance, all confusion was 
avoided on their arrival; all fussing, fuming and worry was laid 
aside. It so happened that the scenery did not arrive, but that the 
costumes came in time, and a beautiful al fresco performance was 
given with a delightful smoothness. Had the deciding of what to 
do been left till they arrived, the actors would have been worn 
out, and their magnetism would have been lost. As it was, Mr. 
Booth was at his best, and the audience seemed not to realize that 
the scenery was lacking. When the local manager made the 
announcement that the scenery had been delayed by the railroad, 
but that al fresco performances were in style among the elite, it 
pleased them. 

" The soul of voice slumbers in the shell, 
Till wak'd and kindled by the master's spell, 
tAnd feeling hearts — touch them but tightly— pour 
(Si thousand melodies unheard before."' 



260 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

^ * D0 fit 

The use of the will assists in developing the will. 

This is the 458th Ealston Principle. A good quality grows 
on itself by using. All the virtues gather strength by the earnest 
practice of them. Love is enhanced by true love: charity made a 
fixed habit by the act of judicious giving; hope is brightened by 
the upward gaze of faith, and what is worth improving is made 
better by the very act of improving them. The will is likewise 
developed by making many tests of its action, providing these 
efforts are discreet and founded in good judgment. 

All unmagnetic persons lack energetic wills. Only those 
who are blessed with positive magnetism are able to exert the will 
at all. Others think they are showing will-power when they are 
merely exhibiting obstinacy under a closed mind. Thus a verdant 
fellow, who had once or more times tried to drive his father's hogs 
to the brook, only to have them go the other way, and who there- 
fore drove them from the brook, and thereby got them to go to it, 
went to a large city. He was met by a lifelong friend, whom he n> 
saw before, but who pretended to know him and his antecedents; 
and he took pleasure in correcting errors, and they parted com- 
pany. Soon another friend came along, and explained to him that 
the foregoing stranger was a bunco steerer, who was pumping for 
further use. "Oh, I'll know him if I see him again." said the 
countryman. But the second friend really did know him a 
thinking it over; he told him who he was. asked him if his name 
was not so and so, his father such and such, and soon proved his 
title to his confidence. They then went around together for mu- 
tual protection, until the verdant fellow was robbed in a very 
quiet manner. He then saw through the trickery, though he re- 
quired a policeman to explain to him that the first stranger had 
pumped the facts out of him and given them to the second stranger. 
Later on a cousin, whom he had never seen, met him by appoint- 
ment, and was refused an audience, in the belief that it was a 
third stranger. In such ways the absence of discretion and will- 
power lead to disaster. 

In contradistinction to this case was that of a green fel- 
low from the country, who was told that he would be victimized 
if he went to the city. He liked the idea, took a hundred dollars 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF WILL-PO^YER. 261 

in bank bills, and went. On his arrival he was met by a green 
fellow fully as much in need of protection as himself, and who 
told him that he was afraid to go about alone, as he was never in 
the city before. The first verdant seemed to sympathize fully 
with him, and stated that it was his first trip. "I have a hundred 
dollars here," he said, showing the amount. The eyes of the second 
verdant glistened, and the first one saw it. Intuition dwells in 
humble minds as well as in the astute. He caught the idea at once, 
and proceeded to catechise his friend. The latter made every effort 
to get him into certain streets, but it was to no avail. At length 
they parted. 

He inquired of policemen where to go, and found their 
information to coincide, so he deemed it trustworthy. Soon a very 
nice and pleasant faced young man met him, and called him by 
name; it was wrong as usual, and the stranger expected to be told 
the true name, but he got only the confirmation of the first name, 
Johnson. "I guess I have hit it by accident," he probably thought. 
"Silas Johnson is my name/' said the country fellow; "and my 

father, Joshua, is a trader in horses up in ville. His brothers 

are Peter Johnson, a blacksmith, and Henry Johnson, a farmer, six 
miles from town." So he went on, and they parted; but not before 
the hundred dollai-s had been displayed. Soon came stranger 
number two, a rather sedate man, with a hymn book under his arm 
and a drawl in his voice. He stopped, lifted his hands in surprise, 
looked for a moment, then rushed to the green fellow, sa} r ing, 
"Well, well, of all pleasant surprises this is the best. Delighted 
to see you. Don't know me? Well, you could not, but you are 
the perfect image of my father. Your father and mine were second 

cousins, if you are Silas Johnson, of ville. If not, I have 

made a mistake. Let us see; your father's name was Josh Johnson. 
They called him Josh, but I know it was Joshua. Joshua was a 
good man in the old Bible days; and you had two uncles, Peter 
Johnson, a blacksmith, and Henry Johnson, a farmer, who lived 

some miles out from ville; let me see, it must be six miles. 

Well, how are you?" They chatted for a while. This verdant 
fellow had given false names to the first stranger, and had made 
them up on the spot; and as soon as he heard this invention he 
knew that the two men were in league to defraud him. 

To him it was a pleasant experience. He showed the 
man the hundred dollars, and wondered how he could lose it. The 



262 " UNIVERSAL MAGNET IS M 

first attempt was by being led to a crowd and jolted; but he held 
his hand on the money and jolted back. When this experiment 
was repeated, he caught the hand of his aggressor, and found that 
it led to a third stranger two feet away and behind his hymn-book 
friend. This man he hung to like a vice, for he had a fearful 
power in his hand; and although the scuffle caused great commo- 
tion, he clung to the thief through thick and thin, and delivered 
him to a policeman. This occurrence puzzled the second stranger; 
he made a subterfuge attempt to trip the country fellow, who ob- 
served it and said nothing. 

Matters proceeded in this way but with new attempts 
to decoy the fellow, until at last they got to the shells used in the 
game of monte, and this interested him exceedingly. The hymn- 
book man was quite unused to it, and wondered how it was done. 
He tried it though, for it was very plain that any bright mind 
could detect the plan of operation. The first time the stranger 
tried he won a dollar, then two, then five, then ten, and he never 
lost. The money was genuine, no doubt. The green fellow was 
asked each time to try it, but replied, "You try it once more." 
After the ten dollars were won by the hymn-book man, he ven- 
tured fifty cents and was successful; then a dollar, and equaled it. 
He got quite excited, and his friend, the hymn-book man, urged 
him to put up his hundred dollars all at once, and make another 
hundred on top of it. He said he would try five dollars first, which 
he did. All the crowd knew he had a hundred dollars, and those 
who knew the game expected that he would be permitted to win 
the five dollars and that the hundred would come out at once. 
He did win the five dollars, and he put them in his pocket. They 
expected him to rush out his full fortune, but he merely said, 
"Fellers, I come to this yere city to see if I could keep from bein' 
robbed. This yer feller with a hymn book has been showin' me 
about for the past few hours, a-doin' his darndest to rob me, but 
I hain't that sort." The bunco steerer slinked away. The case 
shows the power of the will as a means of protecting oneself from 
the deepest intrigues. 

A young woman states a case that shows the effect of a 
constant practice of the will. She loved a young man, who had 
proposed marriage and been accepted. He seemed to regard her 
as a weak object in his hands, to be molded by him as he pleased; 
and she could hardly succeed in protecting herself from his aggres- 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF WILL-POWER. 263 

sions. Be meant to toy with her affections, and had the advantage 
of his superior will coupled by her ardenl love for him. This v, 
a combination that could hardly be resisted. One day she read oi 
weak girls and the fate that generally befalls them; also a bit of 
advice, telling girls to exercise their will-power to the utmo 
She did not propose to offend the young man, not to ad in a s< 
and prudish manner, nor to show petulance that might make him 
regard her as a had dispositioned girl. On the contrary; she tn^ted 
him graciously, and at times, when he seemed desirous of taking 
advantage of her, she looked him fully in the eye, and sweetly 
said ".N"o." Her account to a lady friend showed that as she uttered 
the word she exerted her will-power to the utmost, and the deci- 
siveness was stamped on the tone of her voice. 

A young man who was tempted to drink had been so 
far overcome by his companions as to be unable to resist the use of 
beer, which is the beginning of the drunkard's fate, and on one 
occasion he had taken a glass of wine, and later on a drink of 
whisky. As he had scoffed at the idea that beer would lead to the 
habit of fixed alcoholism, he was overwhelmed with grief at the 
thought of being so deceived. He sought advice, and a good friend 
told him that his will-power would save him, and explained the 
process of magnetism in its use. He resolved to test the matter. 
At the next temptation he said no, and acted no decissively, and 
won. Again he was tempted and sought the aid of his will-power. 
It grew stronger as he used it. He then went in the study of 
magnetism, and fortified his will-power to such an extent that he 
could repel all temptations and not offend his acquaintances. His 
whole life was revolutionized. 

Intensity is the arousing of the vital centers first ; whence 
their power travels to the whole body. When the will is at work, 
the mind usually starts the action. Where there are ganglia, or 
where gray matter is found, there the electric batteries exist. The 
brain is the central furnace of magnetism. The mind is either 
positive or negative. If the former, it sets the will going, if it does 
not close; but if its energy shuts up its operation into a fixed 
refusal or a fixed, unswerving course, it is obstinacy, and all mag- 
netism is at a standstill. If the will keeps alive and active, becom- 
ing a moving progression of force, it is soon as powerful as the 
limit of magnetism allows. These laws are important ones and 
should be understood. The so-called iron will is as useless as a 



264 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

furnace of blazing fire when it ceases to give out its energies to 
some governed purpose. It may be observed in any person who is 
without doubt highly magnetic that he becomes tense as the power 
takes on strength. This is best seen in watching a speaker address- 
ing an audience, or a person in conversation, who shows magnetism. 
Kelaxation, or what is called the devitalizing of the body, is just 
the opposite; then every power drops; the vital centers are discon- 
nected from the muscles; the mind even is languid, and there is 
no control over self or others, although the functions are in every 
way normal. 

In watching persons who display magnetism, it may 
be seen that those who are obstinate, no matter how strong the 
will may be, are not tense nor warm in vitality. They are coarse, 
ugly, cold, stalled, and things of fixed and mindless strength. It is 
true that a person should be stubborn in the right rather than 
weak and overcome in the wrong; but he never gets on in the 
world. A horse that balks is perhaps better at the edge of a preci- 
pice than one whose knees are so fragile that he cannot keep from 
toppling over. The wishy-washy characters are objects of pitiable 
contempt, while the stiff and unreasoning rocks who cannot be 
moved except where they wish to go, and as far as they wish to 
go, are objects of disgust. We like not the silly fool from the coun- 
try, who gave up his money to city sharks at the very first sugges- 
tion; we like not the stern fellow from verdant regions also, who 
locked up his money at home, and took but little with him for 
fear of loss; but, rather, we like the greeny who carried the roll of 
bank bills in his trousers' pocket, who told everybody he had the 
hundred dollars, who showed it to the sharks and sharpers, and 
who held on to it in spite of the deepest intrigues. That fellow was 
not obstinate; he was not afraid; he was strong, and conquered. 
That is true magnetism. 

When the mind is sending forth its streams of energy, 
then the will is most dangerous, most effective and most far-reach- 
ing, for it is most active. To sustain the will, there must be a 
constant propulsive force, and this comes from tensing the mind, 
which imparts intensity to all the faculties. By tins process we 
have the secret of success in the use of the will. The study of this 
one phase of magnetism is in itself important. As has been said, 
the best opportunities for observing the action and effect of in- 
tensity is when a person is speaking, either in a conversation or an 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF WILL-POWER. 265 

■address. The orator that win.s furnishes an excellent illustration 
of this use. 

We recall a session held one Sunday afternoon under the 
auspices of a certain church. A large audience had been attracted 
out by the promise of interesting speakers. The first address was 
brief and merely introductory. The second was made by a stranger, 
who talked smoothly, and what he said seemed to he freighted 
with information that aroused attention, but in twenty minutes 
this grew tiresome, owing to his personal lack of vitality. It was 
A relief when he sat down. The third speaker began in the same 
vvay. He was all devitalized. In muscles, in attitude, in the cran- 
ing of the neck, in the languid flow of the mind's efforts, in every 
way he was lacking in energy. Four men made preparations to go 
home; the children were restless, and the pastor looked sorrowful. 
This man came from a distance, and had a reputation in a far off 
locality. 

The four men looked at the door and measured the dis- 
tance from their seats to the place of exit. They had their coats 
on their arms, their hats in their hands, but did not take the step 
that would start the journey home, for the speaker had shortened 
that craning of his neck, and was now becoming erect in attitude. 
Something in his legs raised him an inch higher; they were no 
longer languid. There was nothing sudden. All was quiet grada- 
tion. Once in a while a speaker who lacks magnetism is compelled 
to make a remark intended to shame his tired hearers. This results 
in needless enmities. On the occasion in question the man did not 
resort to such measures. He saw the four restless auditors, and 
knew that they would slip out at the first lull in the proceedings. 
He did not say, "I will wait until those who wish to retire have 
done so," but he gauged his own momentum, and knew that he 
would soon be well under way. He did not throw in some intensely 
interesting remark to catch their minds as by a hook, nor did he 
promise great things as an inducement for his audience to remain. 

Like a giant steamship getting momentum as she 
floats down the bay in the majesty of motion, he straightway swung 
into the channel of his power; yet without any evidence of change 
at any place of transition. His whole body became tense, in little 
gradations; his neck was now straight; his head rested upon a 
magnificent pair of shoulders, like a globe poised on the back of 
Atlas; he neither stormed, thundered, pealed, nor jerked. The 



266 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

floating palace was acquiring headway. The voice that was so still 
in the quietude of its tones, now grew richly mellow. Ideas with- 
out effort flowed in an easy stream of power, while the arms rose 
in attitudes of expressive meaning. The man was becoming tenser 
in his body, though not by any means less active, for this quality 
does not mean mere rigidity. The four listeners, who were aiming 
to go out, ceased to gaze in side glances at the door; they turned 
around, and faced the speaker; the coats fell to the seats, and the 
hats got down under them by some sort of magic that was never 
explained. 

Then the power of magnetism was more and more felt. 
The voice deepened at times in a wonderful descent to the rich 
mines that were beneath the surface; it flashed rarely, but with 
beautiful effect, in the glowing streams of light that came across 
the horizon; it moved in irresistible floods of power toward its goal, 
the greater ocean beyond; yet at no moment did the orator appear 
to labor. All was majestic, all at ease; yet every fibre of his body 
was alive. The eyes took on a new glow as the flesh became in- 
tense, and one seemed to keep pace with the other, as though the 
laws of cause and effect were at work. The gleam of the eye is 
closest to the brain, and that is nearest to the seat of the will-power. 
Exertion or straining was not apparent. 

1 ®> 1 

The will is strongest when its intensity is smoothest. 

This is the 459th Ealston Principle. Some students have 
fallen into the belief that a physical, a nervous or a mental strain- 
ing is necessary in order to produce the best results in the develop- 
ment of the will. Such struggling leads only to distraction and 
confusion; the very influences that are not advantageous. AVe have 
seen men of genius strive to send forth their magnetic powers by 
tearing their passions to tatters, as Hamlet would say; we have 
many and many a time noted the heroic storming of some amateur 
tragedian, as he attempted to impress the audience with the idea 
that he was the greatest actor of the world; yet they, the astonished 
beholders, merely studied his grotesque movements in amazement, 
wondering what he was really trying to do. Cicero wearied his 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF WILL-POWER. 267 

hearers at first by his i ive vehemence of manner, and would 
have been buried in oblivion but for thai excellent charm of com- 
mon sense which told him of his errors. Genius thus may run 

away with itself. 

The most splendid exhibitions of magnetism, and the 
greatest, have been those wherein there was no struggling to send 
forth the will, no straining of the voice, no fevered pulsing of the 
nerves, no tearing of the mind, no severity of gaze; but, on the 
other hand, that perfect smoothness that is the result of a con- 
sciousness of supreme power. Then is a man or woman most 
dangerous. Quietude is deceptive, and the world is not on the 
alert. Expectancy is wanting, and there is no preparation for the 
coming conquest; no method of resistance has been adopted. One 
hardly knows the volume of power that is accumulated by intensity 
when aiding the will, if magnetism is already acquired. The three 
furnish an irresistible combination. In the unusual quietude of 
Mr. Moody, the evangelist, is seen the almost contradictory force 
of human electricity, ever sending out its influence over those who 
come within the range of his voice. He himself grows tense as he 
proceeds, but never strong; what force of tone he has is lacking 
in those bursts of thunderpeal that made Spurgeon, Beecher and 
Whiteiield greater thar^ all contemporary orators. Mr. Moody has 
full will-power, a vast fund of magnetism, and a steady, quiet but 
giant-like intensity. The will is strongest when it is smoothest in 
its pow r er. We have seen what it is; in another realm we will learn 
how to accumulate it and use it. 



" Slacken not sail yet 
u4t inlet or island ; 
Straight for the beacon steer. 
Straight for the high land' ' 
'"Brightly springs the prisoned fountain 
From the side of 'Delphi' s mountain, 
W hen the stone that weighed upon its bony ant life is thrust aside. 




Ye stars! which are the poetry of Heaven! 
If in your bright leaves we would read the fate 
Of men and empires,— 'tis to be forgiven, 
That in our aspirations to be great, 
Our destinies o'erleap their mortal state." 




(268) 



REALM SIX 




"l^NOWST Mu>u the land where bloom the citron bowers, 
' » Where ll\e <|ol<l-or<ii\<je lights the dUSfty grove'3 
High waves the laurel there, the myrtle flowers, 

/\i\d through (i still blue heaven the sweet winds rove. 
Knqw'St thou it well? There, there with thee 
O friend, O loved one! fain mij steps would flee." 




THE ESTATE OE 



r er^orjal rlbbaii)iT)er)b 



AND THE 



k 



CHARMS Or MAGNETISA\ 



UE who has yearned so long to go 

Over the lofty mountains- 
He whose visions and fond hopes grow 
Dim, with the years that so restless flow- 
Knows what the birds are singing, 
Glad in the free-tops swinging. 
Why, O bird, dost thou hither rare 

Over the lofty mountains? 
Surely it must he Defter there, 
Broader the view and freer the air; 
Com'st thou these longings to "bring me— 
These only, and nothing to wing me?" 

(269) 



' \ sound as if from Dells of silver, 
Or elfin cymbals smitten clear, 
Through the frost-pictured panes I hear. 

I tread in Orient halls enchanted, 
I dream the Saga's dream of caves 
Gem-lit beneath the North Sea waves! 

I walk the land of Eldorado, 
I touch its mimic garden bowers, 
Its silver leaves and diamond flowers! 

The flora of the mystic mine-world 
Ground me lifts on crystal stems 
The petals of its clustered gems!" 



"<vHE raised up Kingu in the midst, she made him the 

greatest, 
To march in front of the host, to lead the whole, 
To begin the war of arms, to advance the attack, 
rorward in the fight to be the triumpher. 
This she gave into his hand, made him sit on the throne:— 
By my command I make thee great in the circle of the 

gods; 
Rule over all the gods I have given thee, 
The greatest shalt thou be, thou my chosen consort; 
Be thy name made great over all the earth. 
She gave him the tablets of fate, laid them on his breast." 

(270) 



THE ESTATE OE 

Personal rlbtairjrrjerjb 




"I'VE rolled my limbs in ecstasy along 

The selfsame turf on which old Homer lay 
That night he dreamed of Helen and of Troy: 
Hnd I have heard, at midnight, the sweet strains 
Come quiring from the hilltop, where, enshrined 
In the rich foldings of a silver cloud, 
The Muses sang Apollo into sleep." 




G HARMS are embellishments of manner, of method, of 
thought, and even of feeling, that cannot fail to lend 
power and advantage to those who possess them. A face 
that is ugly may terrify, and even hypnotize, because of its 
frightful effect; but no person wishes to win the will of another by 
putting to sleep the faculties that make the personality a prize 
worth winning. Said a man who loved, or thought he loved, an 
excellent young lady: "I could not .ecure her heart, but I was 
unable to reason in my mind that she ought not to belong to me. 
For this end I hypnotized her, little by little, until I had her con- 

(271) 



272 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

sent. But she was clay, nothing but clay. No enjoyment sprang 
from my conquest. A rag doll could yield to me as much. I 
turned about in my methods, told her the facts, and began the 
other way. By magnetism I climbed the ladder of success; by 
hypnotism I descended to the pool of remorse." The two direc- 
tions are exactly the opposite of each other, and they lead to 
results that are antagonistic in every sense." 

There is a physical magnetism that sometimes carries 
things by storm. It plunges forward in a flush of excitement, and 
all things crouch before it. The vitality of the lion, the tiger or 
the bully is of this sort; and a temporary paralysis of the will-power 
causes the poor victims of fright to remain powerless. In the 
same way a woman becomes speechless in the presence of a burglar, 
and many a man loses all control of himself under circumstances 
that overwhelm him with alarm. This is due to the fact that the 
* suddenness as well as the force of the shock stops the breath, and 
holds the heart still, making a display of strength impossible. A 
man cannot be brave if his heart will not beat. These bullying 
methods are not magnetic. This is not an age of animalism or of 
force among the most civilized nations. 

Leaving such brute energy out of the question we come 
down to the single fact that there is no way of securing control of 
individuals worth having, when secured, except through mag- 
netism. This power uplifts each human being; it affects and 
brings him up to the standard of the person who exercises it, even 
though but temporarily. It wins, not subjects. It creates the im- 
pression that the superior being is one whom it is agreeable to 
know and to serve. The hypnotist charms as does the snake; the 
magnetic individual exerts a charm that is real. It produces pleas- 
ure because of its value. It supplies vitality and exuberance where 
these are lacking. 

"t// skein of silk without a knot ! 

tAfair march made without a halt .' 
<Jl curious form without a fault ! 
<Jl printed book -without a blot ! 
zAll bcautv, — and without a spot." 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF WILL-POWER. 273 

^ 460 § 

Magnetism gives buoyancy to others and arouses 
vitality. 

This is the 4G0th Ralston Principle. What is meant by buoy- 
ancy is a lightness of feeling, as though the weights that have 
dragged down life are released, and the heart once more soars to 
realms of hope and radiance. 

Many a time have we heard some weary person say that the 
presence of such an one had driven all sorrow away, for a while 
at least. "Why do I go to hear Mr. Gongh lecture every time he 
comes? Because he lifts the heavy load of care from my heart; 
he fills me with life, and I am stronger for weeks after he has lec- 
tured." It is well known that John B. Gough's magnetism was of 
the very highest order, and drew larger audiences at every renewed 
engagement. In one city he failed to attract a large number at the 
start, although his reputation had well preceded him, the difficulty 
being due to the fact that he was regarded as a temperance lecturer, 
when in reality he had a large repertory of other subjects; and the 
city was passing through the era of decay due to the general use 
of alcoholic beverages. The people spoke of him as one demented. 
The press published the statement that he had arrived in the place 
drunk. 

His personality was an example of the power of magnet- 
ism. The lecture w T as slimly attended, but by his proofs he 
showed the perjury of the press, and held the editors and reporters 
up to such scorn that they never again received the confidence of 
the public. Those who were fortunate enough to listen to the 
lecture came away a stature higher. One lady said: "I never felt 
so grand as when I came out of that hall,' 7 and her sentiment was 
echoed by others. The magnetism of the man had overcome the 
first meeting of his enemies in that place; but he was destined to 
follow up the advantage. Later on he delivered another lecture in 
that city, in which he repeated his proofs of perjury against the 
press, and his reception showed that the people despised the papers, 
as after-events also corroborated, for the paying advertisements 
were withdrawn, and the papers suspended. His second lecture 
was a triumph. A third came in another year, and it was not 
possible to accommodate the crowds that gathered in the hall. 



274 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

In another place he met something of the same experi- 
ence, for the reporters and editors all came forward with the allega- 
tion that Mr. Gough had not been sober for a year, and that his 
nerves were unstrung from habitual drunkenness. It is well known 
that a person who is in such condition could have none of that 
steadiness of nerves that is necessary in the self-control of mag- 
netism. The public knew this. His enemies and his friends knew 
it well. So, to prove the absurdity of the charge, he took a goblet 
of water, adding more, until it was full to the top and almost 
ready to overflow; then, during the most impassioned part of his 
lecture, he held the goblet out at arm's length for fifteen minutes 
without so much as jarring off a single drop. The wonderful 
steadiness of nerves and the tremendous strength, of his magnetism 
were marvels that enraptured his audience. Year after year he 
came to them, and lived to see his enemies, the editors and re- 
porters, buried in the grave of oblivion that sooner or later closed 
over them. 

There is a pleasurable satisfaction in the new vitality 
which we feel when we come under the influence of a great soul. 
Something is added to the force of our own faculties. There is 
strength in the contact. A man who suffered from a headache that 
his doctor could not cure, went to hear a speaker who possessed a 
large amount of magnetism, and came away without the headache. 
A young lady, who was subject to painful headaches, found that 
they would fly away whenever her aunt came into the room, as she 
believed the lady took them from her. The evidence is very full 
and very thoroughly corroborated that all magnetic individuals 
exercise this happy influence over those who are weaker; some- 
times all that is necessary is to enter a room, or to speak a word, 
or to give a glance of the eye, and the depression gives way to 
buoyancy and a feeling of stronger vitality. This, then, is one of 
the effective charms of magnetism. 

" The night is Lite, the house is still 
The angels of the hour fulfill 
Their tender ministries, and move 
From couch to couch in cares of hoe" 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF PERSONAL ATTAINMENT. 275 

V' ' ' I 

1 461 

§ g 

A magnetic person may supply magnetism to an- 
other. 

This is the 461si Ralston Principle. In its application to the 

practice of hypnotism it has an important hearing, in that it fur- 
nishes the power to release a suhject from sleep, and restore him 
to his normal consciousness. We have seen that the magnetism of 
the subject must be exhausted by the operator before such sleep 
can be induced, and it remains for the latter to again supply what 
has been withdrawn. 

If this is not done the subject either falls into a condition 
of true catalepsy, or else wakes out of the condition as soon as his 
sleep brings back vitality enough to establish magnetism or 
nervous life, although only on the negative side. The question 
has been asked, if one who is powerfully magnetic is able to yield 
up of his own magnetism enough to establish a positive fund in 
another individual. The idea that a person possessing this power 
obtains control over others by lessening their freedom of will is 
wrong. When magnetism produces an influence over another per- 
son it increases, for the time being, the power of that person's mind, 
and adds a volition or desire to agree with the views expressed by 
the person exerting such influence. It wins this agreement by fair 
means. In order, however, to do so, it is necessary to give such 
strength of mind to the person as will enable him to grasp and 
understand the ideas which are set forth. When the influence is 
of an emotional character, the whole nervous system of the person 
to be won is enlivened, strengthened and made responsive to the 
feelings which are expressed. 

Persons whose magnetism is negative have been 
brought over to the positive side by the great power of some in- 
dividual, as is often noted at the theatre. The stimulus for dra- 
matic talent has been aroused under the influence of some very 
magnetic actor; and persons so affected have gone from the amuse- 
ment hall firmly resolved to devote their lives to such art. It is 
said of actors who have become discouraged through their own 
waning abilities, that their power has been revived and a new lease 
of genius secured through such stimulus. Magnetism and vitality 



276 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

are associated under certain conditions, but each is an element in 
the make-up of the being. Vitality may be referred to as relating 
to health or physical strength, although magnetism associates itself 
with the source of both; but the latter term is more familiarly 
recognized when it occurs in the operations of the nervous svsteni, 
through the mind, in the emotions, or as some form of feeling. 
Through these channels it reaches similar conditions in others, 
and furnishes them with some share of its own power. It makes 
the vitality stronger, and sets in motion the currents of bodily 
health, without taking any of these qualities from the person who 
thus benefits others. 

The best physicians are thus endowed with the ability 
to stimulate into health the depressed vital systems of their patients, 
and to buoy up their depleted magnetic state by the vigor and full- 
ness of their own nervous life. "I felt better the moment the 
physician arrived," said a wealthy banker, who was suffering from 
nervous prostration. "Although I was very ill at the time, and 
lay in bed with my face from him, having no knowledge who was 
coming, I felt as if a strong influence was approaching me; and, 
somehow, I found that I had more strength and more of that 
quality which I had often known as personal magnetism. I turned 
over, and saw the doctor's great eyes shining upon me, and his- 
features seemed to say that he proposed to bring me back again 
into health, even if he lost some of his own magnetism by so doing. 
His voice was decisive and told the same story. When he placed 
his hand upon my forehead, it seemed as though an empty shell 
Avas being filled from some large storage battery." The same kind 
of experience has been common with those who are ill and are 
fortunate enough to have the services of physicians who posse - 
large fund of magnetism. 



"Its boljf flame forever burnetb, 
From Heaven it came, to Heaven returueth 
Too oft on earth a troubled guest. 
<Jtt times deceived, at times opprest ; 
It here is tried and purified, 
i/nd hath in Heaven its perfect i . 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF PERSONAL ATTAINMENT. 277 

S * 1 

1 ^ 2 8 

m S 

Magnetism awakens and strengthens whatever 
faculty it affects. 

This is the 462d Ralston Principle. Nol only does this power 
give its virtue to individuals toward whom it is directed, but it 
also reacts upon the person exercising it. Let a man who is under- 
going a system of training or culture for the purpose of enhancing 
his own value give his mind full scope of action, and he will soon 
discover that the brain and its operations have been benefited. If 
a student of magnetism, after making some headway in the acqui- 
sition of the power, devotes himself to cultivating the will so that 
it may be made an instrument of resistless energy, he will be pleas- 
antly surprised to learn that this faculty has grown with great 
rapidity. 

Man has so many faculties, and they are so varied in 
their uses, that it is only necessary to refer to them in a general 
way. We have known many students of dentistry, and many prac- 
titioners in that profession, who have taken up the art of magnetic 
culture as a means of assisting them in their work. Whether the 
old style of dental work is pursued or modern methods prevail, it 
is of the utmost importance that the nerves be strong and always 
under the most exact control; and it is their steadiness, coupled 
with good judgment, that deternrine*s the real skill of the dentist. 
The instruments he uses are small, yet powerful in their effects; 
his hand should not allow them to slip, nor should rough usage 
and unevenness of applied force cause pain to the patient. There 
is no difficulty in recognizing the hand of skill, or the more 
clumsy hand of unsteadiness; and many a person has refused to 
go a second time to a dentist who, no matter what his knowledge 
may be, lacks control of his nerve or has not that fineness of touch 
which lessens the suffering and gives a relative pleasure, if such 
is possible. From reports sent by dentists who have learned how 
efficacious the art of magnetism becomes in their profession, we are 
satisfied that no greater blessing could be secured, both for the 
practitioner and his patients. One very frankly stated that the 
study of magnetism has added thousands of dollars to his yearly 
income by reason of the greater skill acquired. 



278 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

_ 

The lives of most doctors are so irregular that they are 
constantly subject to low states of vitality, frofn which their pa- 
tients suffer fully as much as themselves. No man more than a 
physician needs the aid of magnetism; and it is our pleasure to 
know, from knowledge secured directly from them, that many 
physicians, reaping the advantages of this culture, have acquired 
magnetism where none was known before; and others have in- 
creased the stock already on hand. Lawyers have been slow to take 
advantage of anything that acids to their personal qualifications for 
rendering useful services to their clients, their chief aim being to 
extract as much money as possible, and to flatter themselves by 
occasional successes in litigation, no matter what the means em- 
ployed. There are, however, two or three lawyers in every hundred 
who believe that the greater their own personal attainments may 
become, the more useful they will be to those whose money makes 
it possible for them to live; and these few, numbering thousands 
in the aggregate, are finding out the truth of the matter. Wher- 
ever any attorney has entered earnestly into the study of mag- 
netism he has added vastly to his ability, to his reputation and to 
his income. 

Magnetism aids the lawyer by making his brain stronger 
and clearer; by enabling him to grasp the more difficult situations 
in a case; by leading him into the depths of the law without sub- 
merging him; by showing to him the salient facts in a cloud of 
disconnected testimony; by enabling him to explain everything 
clearly to his clients; by preventing him from the disadvantages of 
confusion and distraction during the heated conflict of trial; by 
giving him a better standing in court, both before the judge, the 
jury, his associates and his opponents; by enhancing his power in 
argument, and, above all else, by quickening his keenness of in- 
sight in the examination of witnesses. The reason why most 
lawyers refrain from any means of self-improvement is a fixed 
belief in their own extraordinary powers, which is not borne out 
by the experience of after-years; still they keep on waiting and 
looking for that sudden blossoming which never comes, whose 
embryonic petals are mildewed in the infancy of their budding. 
Hence the unmagnetic lawyer is a failure. 

A very valuable illustration of the change that this cul- 
ture will produce in one life, comes from the statement of a lawyer, 
who undertook to improve himself at the age of twenty-five, after 



REALM OF THE ESTATE 01 PERSONAL ATTAINMENT. 279 

nearly four years of practice. He had commenced work in court 
before the close of his twenty-firsi year, being the youngest jury 
advocate in his county, and found himself favored by an extra- 
ordinary combination of circumstances, of which he was able to 
lake full advantage. He lost case after case, and soon found that 
prospects, which had at first appeared splendid to him and his 
friends, were rapidly fading away. This condition of things dis- 
couraged and disheartened him; he saw that something was wrong, 
but what he could not tell. Ho was gifted in speech, was a good 
rhetorician, was keen in logic, and had depth of reasoning powers 
for one of his age; yet older and mightier lawyers awed him; the 
adverse rulings of judges made his mind a vacuity for the time 
being, and shrewd witnesses overmatched him. Cross-examination 
was something he could not understand. 

At the age of twenty-five, when he was really about 
twenty-six, his prospects had practically vanished; his conceit had 
proved a bubble of thin vapor, and he cast about him to discover 
the cause of it all. After months of enforced idleness his mind 
perceived, in the efforts of the great advocates to whom he listened 
with wrapt attention, that they possessed a quality which he utterly 
lacked. This was commonly known by the name of personal mag- 
netism. People said it was born in men, and could not be ac- 
quired; and this he believed for a while. He took the trouble at 
least to analyze this quality, and he found that it was always 
attended by certain personal charms, which seemed to be the 
source of the power itself. Further examination showed that such 
charms were merely attendants upon it, necessary to it, but not 
originators of it. He was compelled to look further. He noticed 
that magnetic men were cool and always free from embarrassment; 
that they spoke deeply and from their souls rather than from the 
mind; that they derived their power from within, so far within 
that they seemed to speak with another self, and that they had" 
warmth in their tones, a gleam of brightness in the eye and a tense 
condition of all their physical faculties. 

All these things gave evidence of an electrical or phos- 
phorescent fire burning within. "When a magnetic Bpeaker began to 
exert an influence strong enough to affect others, a person sitting at 
a certain angle could always discern this electrical bright ness of the 
eye. The lawyer to whom we have referred spent sometime in the 
study of these forces, especially as applied to the human being, and 



280 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

lie satisfied himself that they could be acquired. Books then told 
him so. He found that they came both by negative and by positive 
means; that in a negative way, by preventing waste and loss of 
vitality, the natural accumulation of nervous energy in a single 
day became enormous, and that this might be added to by exer- 
cises, training and regime. He was somewhat idle in his profes- 
sion, and took plenty of time to discover the full truth of these 
new suggestions and to put them into practice. 

Soon after he had become interested in these ideas, 
he had a court trial at hand, and herein he resolved to make some 
effort toward winning through the aid of the power of personal 
magnetism. He really trained himself specially for the handling 
of this case. By some very good luck the trial was delayed three 
weeks beyond the time first set, and he had a total of nearly three 
months in which he had devoted himself to this culture. He laid 
everything else aside, for he was thoroughly in earnest. He had 
not then studied the nature of the will as a magnetic force, but 
somehow made the mastery of himself in this particular trial the 
goal of a most determined resolution. Xever before did he open 
a case so calmly and yet so firmly. Xever did the members 
of the county bar see him so cool, and they said that he had 
the self-possession of one confident of victory. The first real and 
effective cross-examination that he had ever done he did at this 
time. He actually discovered errors in the statements of wit- 
nesses, and destroyed the value of the testimony offered agaiust his 
client. In the various arguments that attend the offering of objec- 
tions during the course of a trial he was clear, concise and effective, 
and almost uniformly successful in the positions which he main- 
tained. His argument was the best he had ever delivered, and the 
first entitled to positive praise. 

Four years later this lawyer had become a master adept 
in the use of magnetism. The only thing we care to specially note 
in this connection is his statement of the remarkable clearness of 
mind which attended him in the cross-examination of adverse wit- 
nesses. This clearness almost reached the realm of the sub-con- 
scious faculty; and certainly many questions, which he was 
prompted to ask, and which brought answers that materially 
helped him in the winning of cases, must have sprung from the 
gift of intuition. In illustration of the same point, a very success- 
ful jury advocate once made this statement: "In probing the minds 



/ 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF PERSONAL \TT\l\ VENT. 281 

•of witnesses opposed to me I often found myself impelled to ask 
questions that came to me by a sort of inspiration; and many an 
apparently lost cause has been won by the hazard of chance in- 
quiries. It seemed as if the witnesses had these important thin, 
in mind, and thought of them so hard that my own mind must 
have caught them; and one case, I am sure, was lost until I saved 
it by a chance question." This experience has been confirmed by 
other attorneys similarly gifted. 

Si AL-\ *<\ 

Is 1 

Magnetism is enhanced by every physical and men- 
tal charm. 

This is the 463d Ealston Principle. Not only does mag- 
netism benefit and improve in every way the faculties of those who 
employ it, but it also is improved by the charms of personality in 
the individual. It would not be reasonable to expect any power to 
win by the sheer force of its own energy, any more than we would 
expect an engine, without evenness of action and freedom from 
friction, to do effective work, even though the most powerful 
•energy was driving it. Magnetism is the power in the individual; 
the charms of his personality are the channels, in part at least, 
through which that power acts. 

Any method that will attract the favorable attention 
•of others is of some service; and any thing that will repel makes 
the exercise of power so much the harder. No person has ever 
been successful in the use of magnetism who has not aided it in 
every possible way. Flattery from a shallow soul, uttered in dis- 
play and without semblance of genuineness, is always repelled ; even 
those who are pleased to be praised by the empty heads of syco- 
phants become angry at the dead tones of such flatterers; but let it 
be charged with the warmth of magnetism, and it takes on a new 
life at once. In such a way have the aggressive natures of the 
world's famous personages won their way to the hearts of those 
who would otherwise have remained enemies. We do not mean to 
say that mere flattery is a charm; the fact really is that the fascina- 
tion attending it lies in the politeness, the sympathy and the kind- 
ness of heart that magnetic men and women know well how to 
use with the greatest effect. 



282 VNIYERSAL MAGNETISM 

Nothing is more valuable in the study of human life 
than the close analysis of those methods "by which successful per- 
sons capture the good opinions of others, whose aid is necessary to 
them. The lawyer, by his extraordinary success, may force the 
public to patronize him, but he cannot force the jury to believe in 
him simply because he has won other cases and has achieved a 
great reputation. To fall back upon such a belief, and to repel the 
jurors by unpleasant methods of procedure, would be foolhardy in 
the extreme. The clergyman might claim that he is charged with 
the power that is implied from the nature of his profession, and the 
great majority seem to rely upon nothing else; but if charms of 
manner, elegance of mind and effective beauties of voice were sub- 
stituted for the loud and rasping notes of a discordant voice, the 
results attained would overwhelm the world. Many physicians 
pretend to believe that a knowledge of drugs is all that is necessary 
to bring their patients back to health, and so much vantage ground 
is lost in this profession. The same principle holds true in every 
department of life. 

The personal habits of some individuals tend to repel 
those who would like to be their friends. Awkwardness may be 
endured in the seclusion of acquaintanceship, when unobserved by 
others; but no young lady takes pleasure in displaying to her 
choicest friends a lover who is constantly having a misunderstand- 
ing with his feet; who knocks things over by the angularity of his 
elbows, and who sits astride an imaginary war-horse when in their 
presence. In a well-balanced nature love is never blind to faults 
that invoke general ridicule; and many a genuine'love match has 
come to an abrupt end because of the crudeness of the lover, and 
he has been left to infer that the cause was due solely to the fickle- 
ness of his sweetheart. She was too generous to wound him where 
he was most vulnerable. 

The roughness of mind and heart, as well as those of 
the body, have stood in the wa} r of success in thousands cf in- 
stances, where abilitv would otherwise have carried men to the 
highest pinnacle of fame. It needs hardly be noted that many 
prominent men in recent American history have been obscured 
because of their lack of charms, both in mind and heart, although 
they have been gifted with genius in its grandest form. When a 
little success makes a man arrogant, overbearing and independent 
of the opinions of others, his ability is never great enough, nor his 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF PERSONAL ATTAINMENT. 283 

past triumphs brilliani enough, to prevenl the decadence of his 

power. His career begins its downward course. If he succeeds at 
all after that, it is by compelling others to yield to him, and this 
enjoyment of power is bound to be short-lived. 



SB ^ 

| 464 | 

Temperament is the result of magnetism, not the 
cause of it. 

This is the 464th Ralston Principle. The first step toward the 
attainment of those personal charms, which aid magnetism in 
winning, is to establish a fixed temperament; and this is done by 
the adoption of new habits. It is supposed by some, if not by most 
persons, that magnetism is the outgrowth of a natural tempera- 
ment, the influences of which give it birth. There is no reason 
for this assumption. The analysis of the lives of men and women 
proves very conclusively that the magnetic temperament is devel- 
oped by methods of living, regime or courses of conduct that tend 
to conserve the nervous energies; and those who are described as 
possessing this power by the gift of nature are entitled to the 
credit themselves, even though it has been unconsciously secured. 

Experiments show that any person who is in earnest 
by emulating the examples of others, if he is able to ascertain what 
they include, can develop the same temperament in himself. If he 
waits for it to become established before he undertakes this line of 
study, he will wait in vain. The temperament is undoubtedly 
necessary, for it is a continual source of supply and stands him in 
good stead under all circumstances. He needs it in those hours 
of conflict or discouragement, when the very foundations of his 
nature seem to fly from under him; when enemies are strongest and 
friends weakest; when it is hard to assume an attitude of courage 
that his own position does not justify, and when a compromise with 
the soft terms of policy, at the expense of honor, will relax the 
tension of the strain under which he is held. ~No man can have 
a better friend, a more staunch and abiding supporter than such 
a temperament. No woman is better qualified to take care of her- 
self in the world, to repel aggression without giving offence, or to 
show her superiority to the average man, than when she is aided 
by this temperament. Yet both sexes may acquire -it at will. 



284 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

Common lives that seem to lack all character in their 
temperament, have been revolutionized after the use of magnetism 
has commenced. It is not merely in the study, but essentially in 
the adoption and practice of this power that advantage arises. It 
may be adopted by a resolution of the will, founded upon a knowl- 
edge of the ways in which the native force is kept from wasting, 
and also upon the regime that drifts into lives without practice of 
any sort. Man is the daily creation of his own mind, -and life is 
the accumulation of days. Young men are most ambitious in the 
years when they seek hardest to earn their own living; say from 
twenty-one to twenty-seven in many cases; and they most easily 
acquire new temperaments. Older men change at will, but are not 
•as flexible. We have known women at every age lay down the coil 
of a badly-planned life, and take on the vesture of temperaments 
•calculated to improve their conditions. In some the change is 
most rapid. We must see what steps are necessary to be taken. 



^ I 

X 465 £ 

Magnetism broadens the features. 

This is the 465th Ralston Principle. To one who read- care- 
fully and repeatedly the requirements and regime that make and 
attend the change from a negative to a magnetic temperament, the 
first real surprise is the destroying of the "worry wrinkles" that are 
found on the brow in most persons. There are three kinds of 
these; the first and most common being the two indentations at 
the top of the nose, between the eyes, at the base of the forehead. 
In some persons there is but a single indentation; in others there 
are two, of about equal height, for they are always vertical: in 
others they are unequal, one being long and deep, the other quite 
short and thin, while the weakest of all nervous temperaments 
have three. 

The strongest men and women, in a nervous sense, 
make one deep wrinkle and another shallow one, generally on each 
side of the nose, while a spray of very faint indentations will appear 
over each eye in rare instances. The life, or dramatic meaning of 
a vertical wrinkle is dislike; and this comes from the fact that 
occurrences of the day cause feelings that embody the mood of dis- 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF PERSONAL ATTAIXMEXT. 285 

like. We never worry at what we like. Hatred, malice, revenge, 
and all the darker characteristics of the mind tend to produce these 
vertical indentations. In any event, they show a negative state of 
magnetism and a temperament not of the best. They do more 
than this; they mar the face, destroy its beauty and repel the 
admiration of those who would otherwise find pleasure in looking 
upon it. 

Study the faces of those whom you meet, or of those 
with whom you are thrown in daily contact, and. note the accuracy 
of this law. When the brow is knitted, something is wrong; some 
idea has passed through the mind that has caused dislike; or some 
fear, worry, fretful influence or other similar mood has detracted 
from the peace of the brain or nervous system. A mother shows 
this more than a father; for her cares are many, and she never is 
free from them; but a man in business, who cannot keep matters 
straightened out or always under control, will come home with the 
deep indentations at the brows. Speak an unkind word to one of 
your friends, and no matter how boldly it may be defied at the 
time, if it has sunk in you will note the deepening wrinkle hour by 
hour during the day. The sullen brow depresses the face and nar- 
rows it perceptibly. 

If you wish to see how quickly the smoothness r or 
beauty of the face may be destroyed, knit the brows and go about 
that way all day long. Your acquaintances will ask, "What is the 
matter?" Strange glances will be cast at you, and the remark may 
be made: "Something has gone wrong." This will not be so, if 
it is your custom to carry knitted brows, for they will not exhibit 
surprise. Many a beautiful woman has lost all her good looks by 
this deplorable custom. Young ladies, who have depended upon 
their faces for the retinue of admirers that have made life enjoy- 
able, find at length that they are not so attractive as formerly, and 
wonder what has come over them. They see all the defects of 
skin and color, but not those of the muscles. Said a young man: 
"Here is the photograph of the girl I once loved. Look at its 
smoothness of face; and now, three years later, see how ugly it has 
become." It Avas ugly indeed; but the cause was in the muscles, 
as the general shape of the face showed the possibility of great 
beauty. 

On inquiring the cause of his discarding her, which he 
had said he did, we found that it was due to an irritable temper.. 



286 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

She had scolded him often for trifles, was fretful, and seemed to 
dislike most persons, for she rarely had a good word for any one. 
"Yet, when I met her, she was a very sweet girl and had a very 
beautiful face." The cause of her change of temperament was 
really the habit of fretting at little things. It grew on her, until 
it became a settled habit. This is true of very many persons. They 
fuss and fret, and give way to every little bit of irritation, until 
they no longer have any control of themselves. Then the face 
gets narrow, and the wrinkles come in. 

We mention the case of the girl who had been dis- 
carded, because it arose in the midst of a circle of acquaintanceship 
well known to us. The young lady was aware of the ugliness of 
face that had come in so short a part of her life; she knew in time 
that it had driven her lover from her and was constantly ostraciz- 
ing her from the friends whom she would secure, and she had 
just sense enough to inquire the cause. For three years she be- 
lieved it was due to the meanness of the world in general, to the 
falsity of all mankind, to the fickleness and empty-hearted pre- 
tences of those who would fawn upon her if she would permit 
them. Then she became satisfied that it was due to herself. 

This was a very wise conclusion, and few indeed are 
shrewd enough to catch the spirit of a fact so accurately. She 
took a mirror, and exclaimed, "What a face!'' It was her good 
fortune to become a pupil in expression, where the phases of life 
are studied under the principles and fixed laws of nature. To her 
teacher she said frankly: "I am studying my own face under your 
theories of facial drift, and I wish to see if I can control it. In the 
first place, is it symmetrical?" It certainly was, in bone forma- 
tion. There was no deformity of brow, cheek-bone, nose or chin. 
No better shaped face could be found. The trouble was with the 
muscles only. The hideous ugliness was due to a contraction of 
those strings that move the flesh to suit the mind and disposition. 
Every ill-natured thought ploughs its small groove through the 
face; but this is really done by a contraction at the temple muscles, 
as a basis for facial drifts, followed by the narrowing of the brow. 

The face is a bunch of strings, called flesh muscles. 
Each part is in two arrangements; one to pull the flesh one way. 
the other to pull it back again. These masses of flesh are capable 
of being moved up or down, right or left, and in any combination 
of these directions, as up to the right, up to the left, and so on. 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF PERSONAL ATTAINMENT. 287 

In fact, there is no direct ion in which some part of the face cannot 
be moved. The skin is a live leather, overlying the fl< sh beneath; 
it is controlled by an intricate interlacing of little muscles, and 
every though! sheds its influence one way or the other on this con- 
struction. The expressions of which the face lb capable are mora 
than two thousand millions in number, and they are all made by 
the multitudes of directions which each fine fibre may make. 

It stands to reason that, if a skin is smooth when 
stretched, it wonld he wrinkled when collapsed, relaxed or con- 
tracted. Magnetism is a life of tensity which dee all relaxa- 
tion as indicative of weakness; it pulls the face out of its narrow 
shape into one of breadth. The mere sensation of pleasure does 
this, while gloom contracts the features. An examination of the 
process of change seems to prove that the broadening of the face 
begins at the back of the ears, and pulls the temples smooth; but 
the flesh at the temples plays its part at the same time. The fore- 
head is also active, so that it cannot be said that the scalp at 
the back half or third of the head is the only motive-power at 
work. 

In noting these important movements, no result is 
more satisfactory than that which comes from the bringing of a 
genuine pleasure to one who has been depressed. A gentleman 
was quite worried over the uncertainty of news in a certain busi- 
ness transaction. His usually serene countenance, which indicated 
self-control and magnetism, was now severely contracted, and deep 
indentations were noticeable between the eyes at the base of the 
brow. Two friends secured information of the brighter turn of 
affairs in the business matter, and came to him resolved to see 
what effect the news would have on his knitted face. It was 
agreed that these two men would sit, one on each side, and note 
the effect of the gradual introduction of the report which they 
were about to make. The conversation had been adroitly planned. 

He greeted them as usual and then relaxed into some 
business matters that required attention. The two men began a 
cross-fire of remarks widely separated in point of time, but calcu- 
lated to lead indirectly to the subject that was uppermost in their 
minds. The first referred to a third party who had become interested 
in a business deal of a similar nature, and lie said of him. casually: 
"Mr. A. is likely to pull out after all." There was a long pause, 
when the second man said: "Yes, I saw him this morning. He 






288 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

was feeling very cheerful." Another wait of several minutes en- 
sued. The man in the center of this group of three was listening, 
then went to" his work again, as though he had not heard at all; 
but the effect was noticeable; there was a tightening of the muscles- 
at the temples, and the scalp behind was somewhat tense. The 
first man continued: "I he%rd that A. was through with the 
matter." Another pause. The second man added at length: "Yes, 
he's through, and his bank account is fatter to-day." This was 
too much for the worried man. He swung around, and asked: 
"Have you heard anything definite?" "I merely got word that the 
deal was closed." "Which way?" "A. came out ahead." "This 
helps me." "Does it?" "Yes; I will 'phone up." The knitted 
brow was not yet smooth; there was a lingering doubt. He rang 
his telephone, and communicated with agents who had charge of 
the matter, and learned that the load had fallen off his shoulders. 
Success came, and in a very large measure. He sat down to go on 
with his other business, but it was too tame. The face had come 
out smoothly; the deep indentations were gone. They left their 
tiny scars, awaiting the deepening effect of some future worry, if 
it should come. 

No face is so repulsive as that which is narrow. The 
lines at the sides of the mouth grow straight er in conditions of 
negative magnetism, and they become more curved and broader 
in cases of positive magnetism. The cheeks are thrown in against 
the nose, and the nostrils are pinched. Look at those little open- 
ings at the nose, and see how broad, how wide open, how distended 
they become under any phase of self-control; then note the pinch- 
ing of the same features when the disposition is meaner. They say 
the dramatic meaning of closed nostrils is cruelty. It may be that 
the center of the face, which is in fact the seat of emotional in- 
telligence, is indicative of the heart's moods, and that cruelty and 
its kindred meanings are found in such contractions, while gen- 
erosity and sympathy are associated with the broadening of the 
face-center. 

Then the forehead muscles play a very important part 
in the determination of moods that are the outgrowth of the 
reasoning faculties. Let a person think much on a subject, and 
his forehead will show lateral or horizontal wrinkles running over 
the nose and partly over the eyes. These are strangely produced 
in tw r o ways. When the brows, or the little lines of hair over the 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF PERSONAL ATTAINMENT. 289 

eyes, are raised high, the forehead takes on horizontal wrinkles, 
the true meaning of which is doubt. Certainty tends to bring 
down these eyebrows, and firmness plants them squarely over the 
eyes. Uncertainty raises them: the greater the doubt, the higher 
up they go; and you have seen some men and many women who 
are unable to withhold this evidence of their worrying. 

In one case a woman of generally calm face was seen to 
raise her eyebrows very frequently. In a week they were fixed at 
a quarter of an inch higher than before. The trouble was due to 
the fact that her husband had taken an inventory of his goods at 
the store, and the account of stock showed a falling off in the last 
six months. This he told to his wife. The thought of poverty, of 
failure in business, of the anger of creditors, and the disgrace 
among neighbors w r hen the report got out, filled her mind all the 
livelong day, and haunted her in dreams. In a month the eyebrows 
had risen a half inch, and in four weeks more she had them up 
close to the top of her forehead. No change could be more com- 
plete. It was amazing. Her brother called upon her from his 
far western home, and could not refrain from an exclamation of 
surprise when the uplifted face greeted his. He inquired the 
cause; but she, faithful to the promise made to her husband^ 
refused to divulge it. The brother then went to the latter, who had 
not noticed the change in his wife; the gradation had been so little 
day by day. They discussed matters of business in confidence, and! 
better success came. But it took as many years to restore that 
forehead to its normal shape as it took months to produce the 
former change. This is a common experience; a tendency the 
wrong way is not so easily remedied, for it soon fixes itself. 

Trouble is the combined meanings of that uncontrol 
which instigates the expressions of doubt and that dislike which 
is shown in the knitting of the brow. In the making of this 
double meaning the vertical wrinkles pervade the lower half of 
the forehead, due to the contracting and narrowing of the face; 
while they are crossed by the horizontal wrinkles, making a display 
of broken skin. The forehead is truly clouded. Its meaning is 
trouble. The strange fact is that the horizontal lines are due to 
the forward movement of the scalp more than to the upward action 
of the eyebrows. This pushing down of the forehead by the scalp's 
action allows the brows to remain down also, as in sullenness; th< 
latter having some element of firmness in it, as is seen in tin 



290 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

closed mouth when the corners are down in the settled mood of 
discontent. 

Magnetism tenses the face, as does any bright sensation, 
and this tensing opens the features. We have referred to a young 
lady, who allowed her peevish nature to so narrow her face that it 
became quite ugly, although it had been beautiful. This ugliness 
drove her lover away. She studied expression, and learned what 
were the causes and the meanings of all the muscular changes of 
the face. Under advice she also studied advanced magnetism. Xot 
by artificial methods, not by pretences of a better disposition, not 
by massage and the mechanical means of smoothing her face, did 
she attempt to get back its beauty, but by a deeply rooted system 
of magnetism that went to the core of her being and revolutionized 
her mind, her heart and her nervous nature. She won back her 
loveliness and her lover. The same thing is true, or may be ma 
true, in all lives; for magnetism broadens the features, as it als 
broadens the whole personality. It is the best of all personal 
attainments. 

i ^ I 

Cynicism weakens mind and heart. 

This is the 466th Ra - i pie. If we were dealing with 

nothing but physical magnetism, we might Let this subject go with- 
out discussion. The best phase of this power is in its mental and 
emotional character. The beef is good enough, but there are de- 
partments of human life far above flesh, even though dependent 
upon that as a basis of existence. Our principle i to the dark 

malice of the mind; the very thing that turned the sweet-f&( 
maiden to a hideous hater of her fellow mortals, and stamped its 
nature on her face. 

Cynicism is a distrust of the motives of others : a look- 
ing for something sinister in every good deed: a berater of charity 
because of its possibility of intended display, and a snapper at 
everything and everybody from early morning to the last hours 
of the dreary day. Its first effect is seen in the features. The 
brow knits more and more deeply: the forehead has its wrinkl - 
of doubt, as though all persons were objects of dire suspicion: : : 
nose becomes pinched in cruelty, and the corners of the mouth 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF PERSONAL ATTAINMENT. 291 

drag down. Take a mirror, and try to change your face to such a 
condition; see if you deem the same beautiful, and try to catch the 
meanings that lurk in this disarrangement of those lines that may 
mark the sublime trend of grandest thoughts, or scrawl the hatred 
of the devil. Do not allow cynicism ever to possess you. 

It is not because of its moral, so much as on account of 
its magnetic value that one should be free from the cynic's dis- 
position. The cure is in the formation of a new habit, by the reso- 
lution of a determined will, which shall forbid the doubting, dis- 
trusting moods to come into the mind. Bad things grow first and 
fastest. When you look for flowers, the weeds are there. Uncanny 
habits take a strong hold on most natures, and resist to the last. 
The will alone can conquer them. Now, here is an opportunity for 
you to try your own value. What are you worth in will-power? 
We know you are cynical; just a little, perhaps; but it is the little 
out of which everything great grows. Eradicate it. It is better to 
hunt for good motives in every human life, and be deceived, than 
to hunt for bad ones and find them; better because of its reflex 
action on your mind, your heart and soul. If all men and women 
would cease searching for the ill in others, and set about finding 
the good, there would be much more of the latter in the world, for 
we can always find what we look for. Try it. Set the example. 
Get a hundred others to try it also. It will become infectious. 



467 ?!? 



* 1 

Adverse criticism is unmagnetic. 

This is the 467th Kalston Principle. It is true that ail per- 
sons are free to pass judgment on the acts and thoughts of their 
fellow beings when any earthly good can be accomplished by so 
doing; but the criticism should be bright, sunny and generous, 
without being untrue and misleading. If you cannot say bright 
things of a person, keep silent. Few indeed are the individuals 
who are totally deprived of some affirmative quality; if you find 
such, you may pass them by. 

Criticism is of two class ; the first applies to matters of 
which the public seek to be informed, the second to those in which 
individuals are interested. It is useless to speak of the methods 



292 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

employed by newspapers, as such methods are generally beyond the 
pale of civilization. As long as they attack evil, show fight to the 
devil, and cry down the bad in every form, they are the agents of 
good; but they do not do this. We believe that it is the duty of 
every man and woman who honors the truth to make war upon 
dishonesty. Criticism attacks the individual.^ War attacks a prin- 
ciple. Persons engaged in doing injury to their fellow beings 
should be suppressed, and their punishment should be intended to 
deter them and others from doing such injury. All these things 
come under the head of crimes. 

So frail is the human heart that perfection is far from 
possible. The critics are always steeped in the poison they dis- 
cover in others. From the tone of their language they seek to 
create the impression that they themselves are free from faults. 
They do not deal in crimes or penalties, but in the weaknesses of 
life; picking out faults here and there, and holding them up to 
ridicule. They do not attack principles or methods, but persons. 
They avoid dealing in laws of operations, and confine themselves 
to characters which they choose to sully, because mud looks 
stronger on white. They prick human beings always in sore and 
tender spots, as though it were a sudden discovery of theirs that 
there were vulnerable defects in mankind. 

What is gained by the general criticism of art, of pro- 
fessional work or of public careers. If a production of the artist 
is worthless, absolutely and entirely without merit, why not let it 
alone? The absence of notice will certainly not be construed into 
a favorable report. If it pleases the ignorant, let it stand for their 
sake; for the wise will not be deceived by it. If a picture or statue 
is so poor in taste and skill of execution that it repels the un- 
initiated, it is not worthy of notice; but if it gives pleasure to one 
mortal, let it go to him in peace. Critics have pronounced as daubs 
some of the masterpieces of creation; so the opinion is sometimes 
no better than the thoughts expressed. In professional work, 
singers, speakers and actors have been made the butt of ridicule 
by the cheapest of scribblers, the most ignorant of whom are found 
in the large cities. In New York it is so easy to bring favorable 
notices from certain critics' that men, whose income from their 
papers is merely nominal, have become wealthy in bribery. In 
that city, and as well in any- of the large centers of population, 
you never see a stinging, sarcastic or mean attack on a play, an 



REALM OF Tin: ESTATE OF PERSONAL ATTAINMENT. 293 

actor, a singer, a musician or a speaker, unless the critic is bidding 
for money, and is making the notice as bitter as possible in order 
to secure a bribe againsl its repetition in thai or other 

If professional work has merit, let thai part of it be 
staled. If it is utterly Lacking in merit, it is n wonder: but let it 
alone. Every time yon turn on the mud faucet in your own brain, 
yon daub yourself. Yon cannot besmirch another without getting 
spattered. If the work has but little merit, state that much, and 
there let the matter rest. ~No one will be deceived. It is much 
better to be silent, or to state a little and have it bright, than to 
turn the mind into a green scum simply to let loose some words 
of ill. (Nor is it the harm that may be done to others that is to 
be considered; the moral side of the problem is not what we are 
presenting; it is the reaction on your own mind. To possess the 
charm of brightness, you need all the sunshine there is in life. 
You can get none so well as by shedding it, as though you were 
an original sun, throwing your rays to planets and their satellites?' 

That class of criticism which interests the curious minds 
of the masses is in the line of personal malignity. There is so 
much devil in men and women that they enjoy the downfall of 
virtue. Even when the pale-face and pious souls exclaim, "Too 
bad!" they mean it not. Here is a man who has held up well for 
fifty years; the public has learned to place their confidence in him; 
the newsmongers get hold of some bit of gossip started by some 
"human gabber," and the story is distended and distorted till it is 
suitable for a column or more of print; the criminal papers start 
it with big headlines; the vilest of these take a whole page, with 
circus poster type running clear across, and it is given to the public. 
Now the men and women who say, "Too bad!" and who pretend to 
such sorrow because of the downfall of this man — well, what do 
those pale-faced, pious persons do? Do they feel the pangs of 
sorrow because of one more good man gone wrong? Not at all. 
They read every word of the account. They get other papers that 
contain the contortions, horribly stretched out; they call the at- 
tention of their friends and acquaintances to the affair; they 
scatter the news as widely as their morbid natures can, and they 
are totally lacking in the sense to see that the discrepancies of the 
sensation stamp it as an untruth on its face. What next do they 
do? We shall see how sincere is that expression of pity. The next 
day the less criminal of these scare-head papers come out with the 




294 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

statement, in a few lines on a back page of their issue, in an 
obscure corner, to the effect that the scandal was wholly without 
foundation; that it was made up out of whole cloth by some gossip, 
and that the man was innocent. What do the pious men and 
women do? They glance at the refutal with disgust. They never 
correct the lie to their friends and acquaintances. Such is human 
nature. 

We present this scum of the heart because you must 
meet it everywhere, and you must not cater to it. You cannot 
afford to send such clouds across the sky of your own life. Dis- 
appoint the morbid greed for this scum by refusing to become a 
sewer through which any mud shall flow. Persons whom you meet 
may declare that they never indulge in gossip and scandal; that 
they do not care to hear it, and all that; but the fact is, they 
will prick up their ears to catch something ill, and will turn deaf 
at mention of something favorable. "I heard a certain thing of 
H.," said a man to an assemblage of acquaintances. "What is it?" 
chimed in every voice, in eager inquiry. "He gave a hundred 
dollars to some worthy poor," was the answer; and the assemblage 
said "Oh!" in tones of disgust. On another occasion, a man said 
to the same 'group: "I heard a certain thing of D.," and they 
asked quickly, "What is it?" "Well, I heard that B. got into 
trouble last week." "What did he do?" "Out with it," "Tell us 
all about it." "Well, he borrowed fifty dollars of a friend — " 
"And never paid it back?" "Not exactly. He lost it." "Pre- 
tended to?" "He said he lost it." "Yes, yes; of course, he said 
so. He would say that." And so the conversation went on. Let 
any ill report start out concerning any man or woman, and the 
curiosity of the mind demands to know it. and to retail it. Let a 
suggestion of good, no matter how slight or how strong, be made 
concerning a person, and it dries up all curiosity. It is altogether 
uninteresting. 

A very conclusive experiment was made with a woman 
who had professed to despise gossip. A gentleman friend took for 
the subject of his test an almost unknown personage, so that the 
question of interest in the individual might not enter into the 
problem. He then remarked to the lady: "I have been pleased 
to hear good reports of Mr. J." "Yes. Are you interested in 
bicycling?" "Somewhat. You know Mr. J. does not ride a bicy- 
cle." "I never heard so." "They speak very well of him, and I 



* 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF PERSONAL ATTAINMENT. 295 

heard of a very excellenl deed of hie nol long ago." "Thai is very 

good. Bicycling is coming into vogue very rapidly." "I believe 
it is already quite popular. I got hold of a piece of gossip about this 
same Mr. J., that does not put him in a good light." The woman 
swung around, directed her gaze from the open window toward 
the man, and asked: "What did he dor" "It>was something that 
does not reflect credit on a man who pretends to be honorable."' 
-Will it Lear repeating?" "I think so." "Then tell me." "I 
interrupted you in your remark about bicycling. Are you learning 
to ride?" "Not yet. I may, however. But what was that about 
Mr. J.? You are very tantalizing. Tell me; you keep me in 
suspense." "Oh, yes; I forgot. Do you wish to know what it was 
he did that I mentioned as being very good?" "No, no. I don't 
care for that. You said something vhv." And this woman then 
saw the weakness of her nature; but she excused herself on the 
ground that her own heart was but a reflection of humanity in 
general. So it is. 

There is a reason for it, but no excuse. The reason is a 
plain one. All human beings are defective. Not one is perfect. 
The best man and the best woman is morally vulnerable some- 
where. When that weak spot is found, the human devils dance 
about it like a crowd of revelers, glad of its existence. You must 
not join in that crowd. You need and must get a better tempera- 
ment, one that cannot endure the upholding of dark suspicions in 
this world of light. Be brave. (Never see evil in another. See 
only the good. Never hint at the bad. Solicit the favors of sun- 
shine, cheerfulness and loving kindness, and shower them broad- 
cast wherever you go. It will pay you well. It is the magnetic / 
temperament J 

" For from the birth 
Of mortal man, the sovereign Maker said, 
That not in humble nor in brief delight, 
U^(or in the fading echoes of Renown, 
"Power's purple robes, nor Pleasure's flowery lap. 
The soul should find enjoyment : but from these 
Turning disdainful to an equal good, 
Through all the ascent of things enlarge her 
Till every bound at length should disappear, 
tAnd infinite perfection close the 



296 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

1 463 $ 

An unpleasant voice is unmagnetic. 

This is the 468th Kalston Principle. The voice is a reflection 
of the real person. ]STo matter how we attempt to vary our tones, 
we cannot escape this law. Even the affected assumption of e^ 
fails to conceal what is behind the voice. It has been common of 
late years for persons who realize that their words are harshly 
spoken to assume a certain style of utterance, which is known as 
affectation, such as we hear in the fop, or in the languid lady: 
but, supposing the pretender to be ill, or discouraged, or envio 
or malicious, or in whatever mood you please, the voice will betray 
such condition by mixing other qualities or colors with the affecta- 
tion. On the same principle it is impossible for a good-natu: 
man to assume a really disagreeable tone, although he purposely 
uses a constricted or throaty voice in the attempt. 

There are fixed qualities in the human voice, and they 
are natural because they are the result of long continued i 
which has developed into a fixed habit. If a person has seen too 
much of the ugly things of life, has developed enmities, sought 
revenge, or given vent in other ways to a disposition of dislike 
hatred, he will have a voice that tells this story in spite of all he 
can do to conceal it. Ordinarily this is known as a guttural fault: 
the throat seems to be narrowed, as though he were attempting to 
growl at everybody and everything. We are sorry - v that a 
large majority are endowed with this harsh and unpleasant quality: 
and it is probably true that the same majority of the human race 
has experienced feelings of hatred or the desire of revenge to a 
.greater or less extent. Another common fault is that of the 
aspirate voice, by which the tone is mixed with unvibrated air; and 
the meaning of this is a desire for secrecy, for it is the natural out- 
come of the universal gossiping habit. It is said that not one 
person in ten thousand, on an ave is free from this evil. An 

aspirate voice is unpleasant and irritating. 

In order to cultivate a pleasant voice it is first esser/ 
to get at the root of the trouble, and this will be found in the 
temperament. By mechanical exercises the guttural and aspirate 
qualities may be eliminated, except for the purpos - art, w\ 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF PERSONAL ATTAINMENT. 297 

they do some service; but the only result attained is the acquisi- 
tion of musical clearness and purity, which may be entirely lacking 
in interest. Still it is a fact that mechanically pure tones cannot 
be long kept from becoming harsh. It is by no means a difficult 
matter to overcome all impurities of voice, including the most 
serious defects as well as harshness, by magnetic exercises alone. 
This is the short road to the best of voices. Under the usual 
systems of voice culture it has required not less than two years to 
establish purity and brilliancy of tone, whereas the development 
of magnetism has accomplished as much in a shorter time, besides 
adding a permanency of value that can never be attained by mere 
vocal practice. The voice is disagreeable in the quality of its 
structure, in the method of its use, and in what it seeks to convey. 
Everybody is agreed that harsh or unpleasant tones annoy those 
who are compelled to hear them, as scratching on glass with a nail 
irritates the ear. 

1 469 § 

Dead tones are unmagnetic. 

This is the 469th Ealston Principle. We have seen that the 
voice may be made mechanically pure by exercises in voice culture 
which are designed for producing that result. At first we wonder 
why a sound that is free from defects, as of harshness and a scrap- 
ing roughness so often found in the speaking tones, should not be 
pleasant when these faults have been removed. So they are, by 
comparison. The note of an organ that had a cracked reed proved 
annoying to the church folks; when a new reed was put in the place 
of the defective one, the sound was pleasant by comparison. The 
note was clear, beautiful and perfect. To hear it once was charm- 
ing; to hear it a thousand times was pleasant enough; but to hear 
it always was lacking in the charm that it first gave, for it was 
a dead sound. 

All persons have live or dead voices, in the sense that 
they speak from the muscular system, or from the mind or heart. 
A young man said of a young lady, who had one of these mechan- 
ically perfect voices, "She has the most beautiful voice I ever 
heard." He followed her for several years as a friend, admirer 
and suitor. She was of a lovable disposition, as far as she was 



298 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM ■ 

capable of loving, but had no malice or hatred in her heart, for 
she was too inactive; an example really of an undeveloped nature. 
This young man could not endure the emptiness of her tones after 
he had become better acquainted with her; their clearness and 
purity gave him no pleasure, although they did not produce that 
distress which the opposite qualities do, and were preferable to 
them. She had a dead voice, one that was completely lacking in 
magnetism, in emotional warmth or in mental strength. 

We often meet this dead voice, and in a variety of 
forms. Sometimes it is coupled with aspiration in its worst condi- 
tion; at other times it is guttural, harsh and scraping; and in these 
combinations it repels all persons who come within its sound. 
There are those whom we dislike very much to listen to; they talk 
and say nothing; or, when their ideas are worth anything, the way 
they present them is wearying. "He is a very attractive looking 
gentleman," said a young lady, describing one whom she had been 
glad to meet; "but the moment he began to talk I was tired of him. 
His voice is nothing, just nothing." The supposition that an oral 
voice is a dead one is well founded, and it is generally true, but not 
always so. There has been life discovered in tones of the oral 
quality, but it is languid. In a few rare cases, physical weakness 
has been the real cause of this unresonant voice. At all events, 
it should be turned into one of magnetic warmth, and this is the 
quickest and surest of all methods. The dead voice is overcome 
in no other way, no matter how hard one may try to force it out by 
culture of the mechanical sort. 

1 470 I 

Monotony of sound or action tends to hypnotize 
rather than magnetize. 

This is the 470th Ralston Principle. What is called range of 
pitch is variation up or down the musical scale. There are three 
registers in the voice, speaking in a general way, the highest being 
known as the head register, the middle as the throat register, and 
the lowest as the chest register. These divisions are made for con- 
venience only. In each of these great divisions of the musical 
scale there are from ei^ht to about eleven half notes, or actual 



REALM OF I Hi: ESTATE OF PER SO* LI ITTAM VENT. 299 

ringing tones. In other words, there are from twenty-four to 
thirty-three different degrees of pitch; in certain very remarkable 

voices then' arc more, in most persons I'- 
ll! spite of this possibility of change or variation, the 
ordinary individual uses hut one or two of them. In conven 
von will hear almost no modulation at all. The man with a harsh 
voice docs not know it perhaps, yet he keeps it goinj 1 in a 
monotony of sound at that. It is wonderfully distressing. 
Borne good luck he Learns that his unpleasant voice* is repelling 
friend-, and he proceeds to cultivate it so a- in sweeten it a Litl 
This is not sufficient. He need- variation in the ose of it, for 

erything monotonous tends to irritate the mind and nerve-, 
may never know why his more beautiful tone is not a full relief to 
his friends and acquaintances. 

What is the value of one pretty note? Will yon go 
to hear the most celebrated singer warble on one tone, say on I ': 
It is a very excellent tone, and has all the exquisite charm of cul- 
ture, and we will say some of the warmth of magnetism; hut i : 
merely C. Yon purchase a piano, and it pleases you immensely. 
Your daughter likes some one note better than all oth< rs, say D, 
and she plays that a full hour. Do yon like it, simply because it 
is perfect? Yet you are compelled to listen to one note only in 
some lovely individual, and it is in yonr presence all day long. It 
is monotonous; and monotony kills. It saps the life of one fibre 
of the brain, and one prick of a needle may produce insanity. 

All monotony is distressing. By it one may perhaps 
hypnotize. We have learned of this process being sue 
through the scheme of addressing the subject in one pitch of the 
voice, taking pains not to indulge in any modulation. To eat the 
same food is bad for the blood, as it seems to cloy the stomach 
and weaken the eagerness of hunger by deadening the action of 
r digestion. (To see the same things in the same way in your room is 
likewise wearying. The same foods, the same regime, the same 
habits, the same amusements, the same thoughts, and monotony 
of life in general or in detail, is more or Less exhausting. 1: 
not do to take all the vitality oill of one nerve, or one class of 
nerves. In the same way a voice of one note does injury to a 
speaker, producing on his mind, by reflex action, an exhaustion 
that is dangerous to his own vigor of thought. It is ah', 
that a man or woman with a monotonous voice is corresponding 



300 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

dull in brain and heart, when using the voice. Some excellent 
writers cannot express valuable thoughts off-hand. Some of the 
best novelists are tiresome in conversation and in speech. The 
attempt to make them lecturers has failed. Lacking magnetism, 
tbey have not acquired warm, rich voices; and to secure the value 
of their minds they have been compelled to write out their lec- 
tures, the delivery of which has destroyed the merits otherwise 
possessed. 

I ^ | 

Methods of speech should afford pleasure to others. 

This is the 471st Ealston Principle. By the word "methods" 
is meant not merely the quality and general characteristics of 
voice, but the many little arts that aid to give its tone pleasure. 
These are so numerous that it would be impracticable to consider 
them apart. We have already referred to the unpleasant qualities 
of the voice, also to its deadness in certain individuals, and to its 
monotonous use; but there are other things, called methods, that 
annoy. You would hardly think that there would be much else 
under this line; but we shall see. 

Under the term methods we may include as much or as 
little as we please, and in whatever department we may choose to 
enter. Thus the use of force is a mistake, if it is employed under 
the idea that it has unusual value. ]N"ot many years ago, the 
proprietor of a large summer hotel lost nearly a hundred of his 
regular patrons before he discovered the cause. It seems that the 
hotel was surrounded on three sides by a very broad piazza, the 
front portion of which attracted the guests in the forenoon hours. 
These patrons generally remained in the month of August, and 
some for two months, and most of them had come year after year. 
In the season to which we have referred they began to leave in a 
few days, and refused to assign a reason. At length it was dis- 
covered that a man, who talked in a loud voice had made it im- 
possible for the guests to enjoy themselves. 

It was his custom to take a prominent place on the 
i^ain piazza and talk on all subjects with equal facility, and thereby 
make his voice a constant soitrce of annoyance. Force is physical, 
animal, mechanical. Magnetic voices are always powerful in their 



REALM OF TIN] ESTATE OF PERSONAL ATTAINMENT. 301 

use of blows or peals of sound; bui these are not to be employed 
more .frequently than the thunder itself in a storm. You uever 
hear it thunder all the time. The least bit of interest or excite- 
ment tends to send the voice up the pitch, and our admiration for 
it is lost at once, no matter how beautiful the person. The voice 
naturally has three normal pilches, the normal high, the normal 
middle, and the normal low. A low pitch is not a soft voice, but 
simply low in the musical scale, and should be developed into 
strength. 

The following natural principles will serve to guide you in 
the daily use of the voice: 

1. A very high pitch with force is used by scolds, vixen and 
irritable people. 

2. A high pitch, a note or two below the normal high, spoken 
with softness and slowlv, is the most affectionate and tender of all 
tones. 

3. A middle pitch is an indication of calmness of mind and 
heart. 

4. A pitch a little below the middle adds earnestness and 
seriousness to a tender and loving voice. 

5. A low pitch spoken with force depicts strength of char- 
acter, firmness of mind and heart, and a ruling spirit. 

6. A low pitch spoken softly betrays solemnity. 

7. Whispered tones, either composed of pure whisper or 
aspirated tones, indicate a suspicious, stealthy or deceptive nature. 
There should be no aspiration in any of the pitches. 

Some of these little rules you already understand, but 
they have a special significance under this head, and should be 
kept constantly in mind until a new temperament has been ac- 
quired. An empty voice is the first great barrier in life; and, as it 
makes those around you nervous and irritable, the counter-pur- 
pose will become desperate and destroy your growth of influence. 
Somebody will be working to get you out of their circle of ac- 
quaintance. The remark of a man that he never traded at a cer- 
tain store because he disliked to hear the proprietor talk, has a 
general significance. To frame pleasant sayings in the mind i> not 
sufficient, for they may not sound pleasant when uttered. We can 
deceive our friends by writing, for then the \oice is not heard: 
but spoken words are colored by the feeling that prompts them. A 



302 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

cross remark, when not intended, has often escaped the lips and 
made enemies. We do not know how the words are going to sound 
until we open our mouths. A vixen is known by the voice. Irri- 
tability is so plainly marked in the' manner of speaking that only 
strong self-control can eradicate it. It is not what we say, but 
how it is said, that influences others. "~No" can be said to mean 
"Yes/' "I am glad to see you," may be intoned so as to mean 
"1 am sorry you are here." 

C Study the effect of your speech over others. Remem- 
ber that you cannot afford to drive away friends or to make ene- 
mies wantonly. You cannot shut you/eyes to the fact that you are 
in competition with all mankind, and that others stand ready to 
push you one side when you are no longer able to hold your own. 
Personal attainments are powers that defeat, each in itself, some 
counter influence that seeks to put you down. This study involves 
a knowledge of the general rules of human nature; and an applica- 
tion of personal magnetism in dealing with such persons as mere 
acquaintances, ordinary friends, tradesmen, employes, agents, and 
all persons whom we meet in ordinary transactions. If we were 
alone in our desire of power, all persons would fall within the 
sway of our will. Purpose, however, is so strong in life, and in all 
animal life especially, that we are crossed at every turn by counter 
purposes. There counter purposes are as numerous as the sands 
of the sea, as varied as the thoughts of man, and exist in even- 
conceivable degree of strength. They are the cause of all crime 
and wickedness. When the desire is stronger than the power of 
execution, the natural consequence is agitation and broken lines 
of influence. As we will see later on, this leads to destruction of 
things, persons, self and soul. The counter influences to be met 
are worthy of your study. We do not now refer to those which come 

Ifrom special sources, but ask you to examine the great world at 
large, study its vagaries, customs, expectations and criticisms. D - 
pend upon your will-power to meet them and hold them in mastery. 
This indomitable will-power is the genius of greatness, or the 
despair of the wretched. Either is for the time so much the 
superior of all counter purposes that the latter are completely con- 
trolled; in the one case they are swept into the straight lines of 
greatness, or demolished by the energy of crime. You can meet 
and overpower the evil forces at work by your own strength; but 
they are best kept at a distance by a magnetic temperament: and 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF PERSONAL ATI \l\ VENT. 303 

this is built of the besi things in life, teaching Bmoothnesa and 
avoiding whatever is rough and annoying.) 

8 ♦- 

1 m 1 

Nothing automatic is magnetic. 

This is the L72d Ralston Principle. What are called ai 
matics are the little movements that throw themselves off, bo to 
speak; they are self-acting. All the world is full of them, and they 
originate in every conceivable way. They lake the attention of 
others from your mind or purpose, and scatter your own influence. 
Did you ever watch your friend? What are his mannerisms, his 
individualities, his automatics? Individualities are character pecu- 
liarities. Mannerisms are 1 physical peculiarities. Automatics art- 
small and disagreeable movements that attract attention and de- 
tract from the usefulness and character of their possessor. 

With the exception of those who have perfect self-con- 
trol all persons possess automatics. Indeed, it is claimed that no 
person is free from them at one time or another. One person 
winks continually. Another squints the face into a constant con- 
tortion; this gentleman chews his mustache, this lady bites her 
finger-nails, that girl nibbles at the ends of her fingers, this 
young man drums, or keeps his lips in motion, and so on through 
a long list of automatic motions. But sounds are very disagreeable 
when automatic. We can look away from the sight of the motion-, 
but cannot close our ears to the person who drums, or taps the 
foot, or snaps the finger, or whistles, or hems at every pause, or 
says "uh" a thousand times an hour when struggling for the right 
word, or keeps some sound going to annoy those within hearing. 

The persons who most indulge in these faults are some- 
times those who most need the power which they are wantonly 
throwing away. These tiresome and irritating physical habits ruin 
a person's usefulness, and directly affect his success in the world. 
It is a pleasure to get away from the person possessing them. Many 
clergymen fail because of this difficulty. Xo friend is hold enough 
to criticise so small a point. It touches the sensitiveness too finely. 
Only this year we were called upon to criticise the leading clergy- 
man in a town where he conld have reaped a harvest of souls double 



304 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

that obtained. He felt that he was a failure, and asked for a frank 
opinion. We had seen him in the pulpit, and stated the cause of 
his indifferent success. "In the first place, you bob your head 
forward on every emphatic word, sometimes craning your neck, 
and sometimes pounding the atmosphere with your forehead. This 
of itself is tiresome. ISTo one can endure to watch you long; for, 
even if the particular fault cannot be analyzed, the public feel 
the lack of your self-containment and control. You make many 
gestures, probably too many; but those you do make are meaning- 
less and therefore irritating to the beholders. Your action is merely 
automatic; with the possibility of thousands of varied movements 
of the body, you make but one or two, and repeat them for three- 
quarters of an hour/' He wrote down these ideas, told them to his 
wife, and practiced at home to overcome them, if he could. 

The claim that a person should not be conscious of self 
is not true in every sense. There is a consciousness required that 
is of the kind that a good grammarian uses; a knowledge of when a 
thing is wrong. "Did you notice the spelling of any words in the 
book you finished to-day?" was asked of a very accurate orthog- 
rapher. He said he noticed nothing. This is consciousness. Had 
there been any bad spelling he would have noticed it. A good 
grammarian never notices correct usage, but is quickly cognizant 
of errors. In the same way a person should be conscious of self, 
and avoid automatics when they occur; not paying attention to 
what is free from such faults. This is effected by temperament. 



^ 473 ^ 

Genuine frankness is magnetic. 

This is the 473d Ealston Principle. By this law the mind 
and heart speak so much as they need, and speak it openly. Sub- 
terfuge and concealment are never necessary. Xor is it proper to 
open the mind on all occasions or to every person. It is com- 
mendable to keep your most private thoughts to yourself; your 
plans, your ambition, your secret communings, if they seem to 
demand it; but of this you alone are arbitrator and must decide. 
Ingeniousness is an art with some, a pretence with others. 



X 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF PERSONAL ATTAINMENT. 305 

There is an air of genial magnetism about one who 
free from deception. Frankness does not mean to tell everything 
you know. On the other hand a careful person will keep many 
tilings to himself. Where it is unnecessary to tell, it is quite un- 
necessary to lie. Do not employ circumlocution to evade. lie 
frank enough, to say you wish to refrain from telling. A magnetic 
person can refuse the request of another so completely and yet so 
delightfully that a pleasant sensation is left where a sting might 
have ensued. Do not have any uncertainty In your answer. Be 
brave in small things. Honesty of purpose is the best corner-stone 
of all magnetic lives; yet there are some persons, notably lawyers, 
who so work themselves up into the belief of the honesty of their 
own dishonest views that for the time being they experience 
genuine feelings of truthfulness. Rufus Choate was one of these 
men. He did not have faith in his clients; but he used the process 
of mental vision to summon before his mind imaginary honest 
clients, for whom he pleaded with all the zeal and warmth of his 
generous and noble heart. The circumstances that looked suspi- 
cious in their connection with his real clients he made consistent 
with the lives of his imaginary ones, and show r ed to the jury how 
an honest man might commit deeds that, while appearing sus- 
picious, were in fact innocently done. So mental vision is an aid 
to dishonesty, and it is to be regretted. 

What a grand mail of manliness and womanliness is 
earnest frankness. In the privacy of your own family you may 
make an ape of yourself, if you wash, and it is generally a relief 
to an overwrought brain to do so. But out in the great, broad 
world, where the battle of life has to be fought, you should be in 
earnest. It is easy to joke, and you leave the impression of being 
a jolly good fellow; but your influence in life is much marred. A 
jovial disposition is always appreciated when proper, if accom- 
panied with dignity and reserve. Humorous illustrations are made 
more humorous if the speaker contrasts himself with the subject- 
matter of the joke. 

One's life conduct should be about right. Coun 
is so important a factor in this great art that its absence at once 
detracts from one's personal power. A man who lacks courage is 
a coward; not always in the sense of conscience, and moral cow- 
ardice is its lowest form; but in the sense of embarrassment. 
Ignorance, in some persons, is the cause of this trouble; in others it 






306 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

kills embarrassment. Generally speaking, however, a lack of knowl- 
edge, a discovered mistake, or forgetfulness will give rise to em- 
barrassment. If we know that we are pronouncing our words well, 
an affirmative courage is present. To be sure of being correct is 
always exhilarating and aids the development of magnetism. 

If we know that our voices are good, and are easily con- 
trolled, the same result follows. If we know that we are awkward, 
we become embarrassed. To be awkward, and not to know it, 
mars our usefulness, for then our friends and audiences lose con- 
fidence in us. A graceful person, free from affectation, inspires the 
friendship and confidence of others. That saves embarrassment. 

IF YOU AKE CAUGHT IXT A MISTAKE, ADMIT IT. 

This precept is nearly always a good one. No honest 
man need ever fear the result of admitting an error. If the error 
is unnoticed, do not call attention to it, if there is no possibility of 
harm arising from its concealment. If it is noticed, and you 
attempt to dodge it, the result will be disastrous. A read}', straight- 
forward acknowledgment of the error has a breezy air of frankness 
about it that always charms and captivates. Dishonest people 
generally seek to cireumlocute and explain away their errors. 

Some persons run away from empty fears ; some seek 
to dodge the irresistible; and all put off till the last moment the 
disagreeable duties of life. Such avoidance is unmagnetic. 

DO THINGS THAT YOU DISLIKE TO DO. 

Of course, this applies to things that are proper to do. 
It is human nature to shirk, to dodge, or evade, to put off. It is 
never magnetic, however. Such habits are easily formed. It is 
unnecessary to state that laziness is an enemy of this art, as it is 
of every art and every good thing in life; but there will be little 
laziness present in any pupil who masters the tension exercises. 
They will drive it awa}', and probably forever. 

On arising in the morning you will think of some duty 
that should be performed. It may not exactly be disagreeable, but 
it is unattractive, and you feel that it can be put off for a day or 
two. Go about it at once! You wish to speak to your neighbor 
upon a matter that needs rectifying, but which he may be ignorant 
of. It may be slightly unpleasant. Do it at once. It is good 
training. You owe a man a bill. You meet him on the street. 
Speak to him about it frankly and honestly. If you can never pay 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF PERSONAL ATTAINMENT. 307 

> him, say so. If in a year you may be able to cancel the debt, say so. 
Whatever tho facts arc, tell them. Do not hang your head, and 
merely nod as you go by. If you know he is in the habit of passing 
a certain street, do not dodge him or change your accustomed path, 
even though it is just as convenient. Such habits make a currish 
spirit and stamp the face badly. If your creditor asks you for the 
debt, do not be annoyed, even if he is angry. Dignity and manli- 
ness will make you supreme master of the situation. 

All persons may be unfortunate enough to be insol- 
vent debtors at times. It is a bad freak of human nature to spend 
your cash at most any other place than that of your creditor, simply 
because you are afraid to meet him. Persons who can no longer 
get credit will spend their cash at the store of one whom they do 
not owe. This is unmagnetic, because it is unmanly. Go to your 
creditor, and tell him that you cannot pay him the old debt, but 
that, as long as he will sell you at as low prices as others, you will 
give him the preference of your cash patronage. It builds up a 
manly and magnetic spirit to seek out and to perform things that 
you dislike to do. 

If a person owes you do not be afraid to ask for it. 
Do not whine and beg, but come directly to the point; show him 
the exact position he occupies in the matter. Your magnetic di- 
rectness may secure the claim, where threatening or peevishness 
would do no good. The mere presence and look of a creditor has 
made many a debtor feel glad to pay the debt. 

If you owe a person an apology, make it ; but always 
in a frank, honest and dignified manner; no matter whether you 
have offended the greatest or the meanest of earth, intentionally or 
unintentionally. It is not yielding to apologize where an apology 
is due. Never be profuse. A simple, earnest remark, coming from 
the heart, is always sufficient. Do this even if it is hard to do; that 
makes it better practice. 

If you have a favor to ask of another, do not put it off. 
The more you dislike to do it, the sooner you should attempt it, 
for you should be thankful that such an opportunity presents itself 
for practicing this precept. And so we might go on citing the 
ways in which you can perform things that are not inviting. Many 
such opportunities present themselves constantly. Hail them as 
good omens, and never disregard this precept. It will make you 
manly, and that quality is essential to magnetism of the person. J 



308 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 



1 *>* 1 

Politeness is magnetic. 

This is the 474th Balston Principle. To be polite is to be 
both skilled in the science of etiquette and polished in the art of 
good breeding. So important are these two great accomplishments 
that a special book, known as Ealston Culture, has devoted a large 
space to them. The laws of etiquette are founded upon natural 
rules in most instances, and no person is excusable who is ignorant 
of them. The fads and whims of artificial form are not worth 
learning. So that a person is correct, as far as good judgment and 
sense hold swav; he is cultured. 

Politeness that is not natural, is generally insipid, flat 
and colorless. By natural politeness is meant that manner of 
tongue and action which is a part of ourselves at all times. Natu- 
ralness is merely habit. One habit can easily be changed for an- 
other. After the first struggle is over the new habit displaces the 
old. The tendency of mankind is to drift into barbarism. The 
cultivating hand of art checks this tendency and seeks to improve 
man. 

Politeness should be studied as an art and practiced as 
such. It is sometimes practiced only before company, but the 
shallowness is soon discovered. A person naturally polite will be 
so before a beggar and before a king; before his own sister as well 
as in the presence of some other fellow's sister; before his mother, 
father, child, servant, dog; and he who is coarse at home, or boorish 
in his private life, can assume only the thinniest gauze of polite- 
ness when occasion demands it; and because it is mere assumption, 
he will become embarrassed, will blunder, halt, hem, and show 
either stupid reticence or a brassy boorishness under the guise of 
pretended felicitous conversation. The latter has the supreme 
satisfaction of feeling happy while making others miserable. 

Success is worth attaining, whether it is forced by the 
command of a haughty will or invited by the dulcet tones of kind- 
ness. Polish is the fairest of accomplishments, for it attracts as 
the light draws the moth. . Many a plain woman has won her way 
to the good opinion of others by nothing better than an elegance 
of manner and politeness. Society is a power in every locality. It 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF PERSONAL ATTAINMENT. 309 

is intended to draw the line between the coarse animal instincts 
of humanity and the higher hopes of refinement, and is undoubt- 
edly the birthright of gentleness. J low quickly a gentleman of 
reasonable ability might rise in life, if lie were to give unmistak- 
able evidence of the possession of this quality. 

M 475 S 

s s? 



Sympathy is magnetic. 

This is the 475th Ealston Principle. It deals with a quality 
of the heart, as politeness is a quality of the mind and muscles. 
In the present existence men and women are always in need of 
sympathy, and are always looking for it. No one is so strong that 
it is not accepted as a solace for the sufferings and disappointments 
of life. To be alone on the face of the globe would make man a 
brute, a soul of iron without a single pulsation of kindly interest in 
anything except the operations of crude nature. Humanity is 
based upon sympathy by which hearts are interwoven into the 
fabric of society. 

This quality is an angel with wings outspread toward 
opposite poles. We cannot bear to witness the agony of others, 
even when they might have averted the condition their own wan- 
tonness has brought upon them; but it is as harmful to them as to 
us to encourage or even permit such wantonness to have free scope. 
This age is saturated with fraud and deceit, the practice of which 
destroys the magnetism of the possessor and may outflank the 
strength of the honest man. You cannot afford to use crooked 
methods; for magnetism is the doctrine of straightness. Nor can 
you afford to be ambushed by the trickery of others. The proudest 
army the world ever saw, the chosen array of men tried in battle 
and proven in bravery, could not withstand the treachery of the 
diabolical methods employed by savages. Strength must fight in 
the open. 

This law is true in magnetism, and is one of its most 
important principles. Sympathy is needed for those who are attacked 
in ambush, and for yourself as well if you are unable to cope with 
this disadvantage; but it must be withheld from the classes that 
prey upon your honesty under the pretence of doing you a service. 



310 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

You may be as magnetic as you please; if you step into a trap that 
will catch you in its sharp clutches, you are defenceless. The 
sword that cut the tendon at the heel of Achilles laid him low. 
There is trickery at every hand, waiting to entrap you; and the 
age is now in the vortex of a whirlpool of deceit. 

There is plenty of dishonesty in the world, but far more 
honesty. Because the former is so abundant it is no reason why 
you should distrust mankind generally. A confidence in those 
about you affords you more comfort, and draws the love of others 
to you. It is well to be on your guard, so as to save yourself from 
loss. You can rebuke dishonesty by a full, powerful glance of the 
eye. It may help the pupil to learn the result of ten years' in- 
vestigation of mankind generally, by the author, as to where the 
dishonesty is apt to be found. The people are classified, and the 
percentage of dishonesty given. Thus, out of four thousand 
traders, twenty were found to be strictly honest; the others were 
honest where nothing was to be gained by dishonesty, and honest 
if gain was to be the product of it; so that, although every act of 
their business lives was not dishonest, we give them a clear bill 
of rascality. 

PERCENTAGE OF DISHONESTY 

as found among various classes of people during ten years' search: 

PER CENT. 
DISHONEST. 

Corporations 100 

Politicians .• 100 

Manufacturers 99 9 ' 

Wholesale dealers 99 s 



10 
10 



Retail traders 99 5 | 10 

Peddlers 99*^ 

Real estate agents 98 



1 10 



*o 



10 



Editors 98 

Lawyers 9T 5 

Insurance agents S9 

Authors of fiction 89 

Boarding-house keepers S7 

Bankers ?5 5 | 10 

Architects 52 

Bakers 51 

Druggists 48 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF PERSONAL ATTAINMENT. 311 



PER < 
DISHONEST. 



Physicians 47 

Dentists •. . 42 

Teachers 35 5 ] 10 

Actors 34 

Artists 31 

Musicians 31 

Artisans 2G 

Poets 18 

Historical authors 17 

Soldiers 1 G 

Surgeons 14 

Undertakers 13 5 |i 

Clergymen 6 

Sailors 3 

The relative percentage of honesty compared with 
dishonesty in each person could not be estimated. If a man is not 
always honest he is dishonest. Under this plan three sailors in 
every one hundred were dishonest; six clergymen, and so on, until 
we reach lawyers, editors, real estate agents, peddlers, retail traders, 
manufacturers, politicians and corporations; here we find eight 
classes wherein, through the exigencies of business, its competi- 
tions and demands, dishonesty is rife. It is a peculiar fact that, as 
a general rule, most of the men who are not honest in their busi- 
ness relations are faithful and true in their other relations in life. 

The foregoing table will tell us when and under what 
circumstances to withhold our credulity. "Business is business'' 
probably is the guiding maxim which seems to make dishonesty 
excusable. But the bad are not always bad. And so even among 
the dishonest classes there is more truth than falsity. If "business 
is business," we had better keep our eyes open while dealing with 
all persons, and yet not let our sympathy for mankind be lessened. 
Therefore, outside of the watchfulness necessary in trading and 
dealing with others in their professional or business relations, we 
should always be sympathetic. It requires an effort, undoubtedly, 
but all good things require efforts. It may not be our nature, but 
nature is only habit, and all habits may be changed. 

We should take a kindly interest in everybody, where 
we have occasion to meet and talk with them. Make our tor 



312 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

pleasant and sincerely earnest. Pitch the voice at or below the 
middle register. Soften it if the occasion demands. Do not be 
sympathetic to bestow a favor, or to be patronizing. Do not be 
/ verbose. Do not "slop over." (Say nothing of a sympathetic nature 
unless the heart prompts it, and there is thought behind the words; 
but make the heart prompt it. Educate it to kindness. Study 
faces; look into the eyes of those you meet, and read their lives. 
Mental vision will aid you to carry your study of men and women 
into their homes; and it rarely ever fails to tell true stories of their 
joys or sorrows, hopes or disappointments. 

In your sympathy learn to discriminate between the 
classes that cause so much suffering to their fellow beings and those 
who are righting the battle of honesty, and you will find both sides 
in array. Dishonesty is more active; one foxy man will, in a day, 
cover more ground than ten honest men, taking all the averages 
into consideration. This should not be true. It is the duty of 
those who possess a superior power to drive out of ambush the 
lurking outlaws; for fear is a detriment to courage, and the bravest 
cannot help fearing a tricky adversary. You can understand this 
principle better by putting yourself in the place of one who is 
willing to fight a foe openly, as man to man, but who would be 
foolhardy to submit himself to the sure dangers of subterfuge. 

The preceding table of dishonesty was prepared some 
years ago, and has been before the public for a decade without 
adverse criticism. Those who are in a position to know agree fully 
with the percentages given, and some have offered Suggestions 
tending to strengthen the positions given. Corporations are bodies 
in the aggregate designed to avoid responsibility, and to shield the 
official as well as the member behind the mass. This aggregation 
is controlled by one spirit only — policy. It is a spirit without a 
soul. The common law of England and America has for centuries 
maintained that corporations have no souls. All humanity is 
absent in their conduct, and without humanity there is no chance 
for the development of magnetism. 

Politicians are dishonest to the core, in and out, from 
their hides to their centers. The so-called profession of polities is 
the lowest in the whole category of methods by which a man seeks 
to get a living by his wits. It is the diametrical opposite of states- 
manship. The latter refuses to be bound by party, but first de- 
mands the principle. All party ties are fetters of freedom; and 



REALM OF TEE ESTATE OF PERSONAL ATTAINMENT. 313 

there is no honest man who is willing to give up his freedom to a 
party, unless he is a stupid dupe. To think and to act in a certain 
rut is not liberty. The party man is a caged bird of songless voice. 
The statesman is an eagle, whose broad, expanding wings lift him 
out of the hollow dungeons into a plane far above, from which he 
is able to view a wide horizon. 

Manufacturers are nearly all dishonest, especially in 
America. The race here is for money only. If a reliable brand of 
goods is established, it is only because there is value in the name 
of honesty; and this mere name must be paraded for the purposes 
of advertising. American manufacturers are the most unreliable 
in the world, and this is not necessarily a reflection upon the 
people, for most of the manufacturers are the off-scourings of the 
Old World. Many attempts have been made to expose them, but 
they combine with politicians, and have influence in legislation to 
such an extent that it is almost hopeless to dethrone them. When 
we state the lamentable fact that the white flour sold at this day 
is badly adulterated with, injurious matter, such as white clay, 
earth, ground lime, terra alba, fertilizing material, as well as corn, 
corn husks, alum and other poisons, it tells the whole story; for 
when manufacturers are so dishonest as to imperil the lives of 
humanity by the invasion of the staff of life with their money- 
making diabolism, we can hope for nothing better in other direc- 
tions. 

The study of magnetism has everything to do with the 
question of honesty in food manufactures. The surest way of 
securing magnetism is by the natural funds in the vital system of 
the body, and these are directly supplied by the nutrition of the 
blood. Pure foods, if of a wholesome character, will of themselves 
generate more than nine-tenths of all the magnetism the body 
needs. It is the purpose of nature that they should do this. Pure 
foods tend toward the healing of all diseases; they drive away pain 
by substituting wholesome flesh in place of that which is imperfect. 
They supply power because their nutrition is turned into vitality. 
On the opposite hand, the use of dangerous foods will soon drive 
away all magnetism. 

A very ready test was made of this fact in the case of a 
man who was acknowledged to be of the highest order of power in 
this line, but who, on attempting to address a meeting where much 
was expected of him, could not do more than deal in words, lie 



314 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

was suffering from intestinal pains caused by the use of adulterated 
foods. An actor, who had held for }^ears a power over his audiences, 
found his magnetism all gone, and he spent his weeks and months 
fighting to hold his own in the dramatic profession, while it was 
impossible to get vitality from the food he ate. At length he 
suspected that he was falling prey to the numberless food adultera- 
tions; he saw in the papers the statement that no food was pure, or 
at least that all kinds were adulterated, and he fell back upon the 
plainest of the wholesome foods, using those that he knew could 
not be tampered with; and lo! to his gratifying surprise his mag- 
netism came back in full force. He said: "I now use a better class 
of foods, if simpler, than ever I used before, and I am correspond- 
ingly benefited." Herein is a secret worth learning, if you would 
get the best value from what you eat. And the best is much the 
cheapest. 

We will not take the space to discuss all the list in the 
table of dishonesty. The chief importance is in the fact that we 
must avoid being waylaid by the trickery of these classes. A retail 
dealer says: "I am not one of those who pretend to be honest. I 
simply try to be when I can; and when I cannot, I do not try. I 
defy any man in my business line to be honest all the time. The 
trouble is principally with the wholesalers; they are up to new 
tricks all the time. Here is G., a retailer; he was convicted of sell- 
ing chemically made vinegar that was rank poisonous. I had some 
of the same kind, and I would have sworn it was pure vinegar; but 
it was not. You see, I did not know. I cannot find out how to tell 
all these adulterations. I had bought the best grade of Bpic< 3, 
cream tartar, peppers, and other goods; but they all turned out to 
be fraudulent. I paid the highest prices. What am I to do?" And 
he then went on to say that he could not look a man in the face to 
whom he had sold some of such poisons. It made a sort of sneak 
of him. The men who sold him the goods he never dealt with 
again, and he took the trouble to notify other retail dealers of the 
fact, which he persisted in until he had ruined the wholesa 
This was right. If other honest men would do as much, the ene- 
mies of humanity would be driven from ambush. 

A judge of court once gave evidence of a keen knowledge 
of human nature. A business man purchased some guaranteed all- 
wool suitings, some guaranteed all-linen handkerchiefs, and other 
things from a. peddler who had a regular route. The goods pro 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF PERSONAL ATTAIN VENT. 315 

to be very inferior grades of cotton. The peddler was arrested and 
discharged. The judge said: "In this age of misrepresentation 
the courts cannot stop to correct the falsehoods told in business. 
The complaining witness certainly knew, or ought to have known, 
that peddlers are no more honest than other merchants." In an- 
other case the judge ruled to the jury somewhat as follows: "The 
decisions of courts in the various States, particularly in what are 
termed leading cases, as far as they affect this cause, establish the 
right of a man selling goods to praise them to excess, even to over- 
step the bounds of truth. If he guarantees them inJSuch language 
as would amount to a warranty of their nature, gT^rcle, etc., he may 
be liable in a civil action for a breach of such j^arantee; but false 
statements are not of that character. There s#ms to be no penalty 
for them, unless it is a clear case of obtaining money or other value 
by false pretences. A falsehood that overjtaises the goods would 
not be construed as a ground for either a crr\mal or civil action." 
In other words, the courts hold that deceit is tcT-be expected in 
trade, and that a purchaser should not find fault if he is victimized. 

A man who had been in business thirty years and in 
politics for ten or more, said: "In the ten years of my political 
career, which is now as successful as at any previous time, I have 
never met an honest man in that profession, although a certain few 
have the reputation of being unsullied. When a Kepresentative 
or Senator does not dare to accept a bribe from a corporation; he 
accepts a retainer to act as attorney, whether he is an attorney or 
not. Among my business acquaintances the only honest man I 
have ever met — that is, the only man who was probably honest all 
the time — was a retail grocer, who would not sell pure goods on 
the guarantee or reputation of a firm of makers or whoesalers, but 
who got at the knowledge of their .contents in one way or another 
and gave the facts to his patrons. He was believed in by all his 
customers, and built up an immense trade. He and a few of his 
wealthy patrons combined in a little society, and hired chemists to 
analyze the goods. This became known." We have received a 
large number of similar letters from the earliest students of our 
book on Advanced Magnetism. 

If you are thinking of buying land or of otherwise en- 
gaging the services of a real estate agent, it is well to remember 
the remarks made by the jud^e of court. While most of them are 
dishonest at some time or other, about two in a hundred are honest 



316 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

at all times; but these two have not settled in your locality, it is 
quite probable. It is very humiliating and disheartening to be 
cheated in matters that relate to a home; so we advise you to in- 
quire of all your friends and acquaintances who can give you light 
upon the facts that pertain to such transactions. Lawyers are not 
all honest at all times; some are honest part of the time, and some 
are never honest, as the effort would fracture their cheek. There 
is a class of counsellors who pride themselves on their knowledge, 
their chastity and their integrity; men who never take a small 
case, and who charge extortionate fees in large ones. They would 
not misrepresent a fact to court or jury, but they are thoroughly 
dishonest while satisfying themselves of their honesty; for it is 
fraudulent to accept a retainer that is worth more than all their 
services should be valued in the whole case; keep their clients in 
the dark as to the probable future charges, and finally extort an 
extra fee of enormous proportions. This is the practice of many 
white-featured lawyers. Perhaps their conceit makes them believe 
that they are honest. Extortion is always a crime, and any charge 
that exceeds the actual value of the services rendered is extortion. 
The greatest evidence of hypnotic contagion is the 
blind belief that the ignorant classes have in the statements made 
in the newspapers. On the Bowery in New York City the "yellow" 
journals have a large following, the rankest of which are four in 
number in the morning and four in the evening; although all 
papers that use large type headlines, called scare-heads, are "yel- 
low," sensational and criminal, as investigation will show. The 
enterprise (?) of such papers is emulated by all other dishonest 
editors; their syndicate Sunday falsehoods are copied far and wide; 
their concocted scientific (?) articles are eagerly caught up by the 
smaller press, who know better than to believe in them; and so the 
whole profession of journalism is saturated with the lowest stripe 
of dishonesty. How eagerly a fake interview with a prominent 
man, created out of nothing but the criminal brain of an editor or 
far-away aethereal correspondent (?), is caught up by all the papers 
of the country without exception, and paraded into the homes of 
those who are too busy to analyze the frauds of the press. On July 
28th, 1899, the New York Liar pretended that its European cor- 
respondent (a myth that existed in the brain of the editor of the 
N. Y. L.) had seen Admiral Dewey, and had succeeded in making 
him talk in a very indiscreet manner; the whole thing being, of 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF PERSONAL ATTAIN VENT. 317 

course, repudiated by him as an invention; yet every paper in 
America published that interview, as though it were true. We 
asked an editor if he believed it at the time he read it, and 
quickly answered, "No; we all knew it was a lie. That New York 
paper is an unparalleled liar. But we published it because it waa 
news, and the people do not care whether it was true or not." Anr 
other editor said: "Journalism of to-day in America is a sort < f 
dime novel affair. It is mostly fiction of the cheapest grade." An'! 
we have reports from many editors who would like to see it made 
an honest profession. That such lies do an incalculable injury is 
well known, from the fact that so many editors, reporters and cor- 
respondents are killed every year by those they have maligned, and 
juries have refused to convict the slayers. Eeputation is dearer 
than life, and if a man may kill his would-be murderer, it is good 
logic to assume that juries are justified in acquitting those who 
have removed pests worse than murderers. 



$ 476 | 



* Beauty of thought is magnetic. 

This is the 476th Ealston Principle. Before this volume cL 
we shall show that true magnetism, that which wins and which 
ennobles the character that wins, is associated with a realm of 
which man knows but little. - Assuming that there are opposite 
poles of existence somewhere, but not fully recognized as yet, and 
assuming that, for the sake of convenience, it would be proper to 
call one of them hell and the other heaven, we feel justified in 
asserting that negative magnetism tends toward the former condi- 
tion and positive toward the latter; that hypnotism is at the low< 
extremity of the basest form of sub-consciousness, while magnetism 
is at the highest. 

The more you examine these propositions the more 
you will be convinced of their truth. 

Life has two main highways — one that ascends, the 
other that descends; one that invites everything that enhances the 
value of existence, the other that invites all the meanness of the 
universe into its pathway. A flower is an object of praise, a weed 



318 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

inspires contempt. A song awakens the memory of other days, 
and its swelling notes are fraught with the fragrant airs of youth 
and love; a discordant scratching on the window-pane is sound that 
distracts. Thoughts that are beautiful are born of heaven some- 
where; whether it be on earth or in brighter skies, we know not. 
All power for ruling life is akin to the all prevailing scheme that is 
sending this planei on to a grander destiny. 

A fountain can rise no higher than its source, and a 
mind can give no more than it has. Beautiful thoughts are pearls 
of life, and can never die. Well spoken words reflect their meaning 
on the soul. A thought read by the eye or coldly uttered by the 
voice appeals to the brain only, and is rarely ever fully absorbed. 
A thought feelingly spoken, with the full heart of the speaker back 
of it, is soon absorbed. Thus the grandest and most sublime ex- 
perience of the world's past great men and women can be drawn 
into our natures. 

The greatest characters of one generation have 
absorbed the thoughts of the greatest characters of the preceding 
generations. This accumulation has come down to us. A great 
character leaves behind him, in language, the very pith and essence 
of himself. The things a man says are himself. He at one time 
loved to quote the grandest thoughts of his predecessors, until, by 
absorption, they became a part of his character. Edward Everett 
declared this to be the surest and quickest means of building a 
strong character; and no great person has ever failed to follow the 
plan. Webster was full of Milton, Shakespeare and the Bible. 

Flowers are the stars of the fields, the pearls of the 
garden, the jewels of home. They abound everywhere to please the 
eye with their beauty, and fill the air with their fragrance. They 
are to the substantial growth of vegetation what poetry is to prose. 
The sky is studded with them at night, when earth's flowers have 
gone to rest. The love of flowers should be cultivated. To look 
into the construction of the tiniest bud that blooms, and con- 
template its world of life, its intricacy of growth, will awaken the 
heart to a desire for the purest things of life. 

Music likewise touches the depths of the soul. The 
love for this can be increased by cultivation. It is not necessary 
to be able to sing or play. The author can do neither, but he can 
listen to both with intensie enjoyment. The ballads of everyday 
life, and the profounder music of the thoughtful composers impress 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF PERSONAL ATTAINMENT, 319 

t lie mind and heart; but the common airs known as topical BOD 
and the "catchy" tunes that amuse merely, are to pure music what 
"slang" is to refinement. Character is not built up by cultivating 
a taste for "slangy" songs. Here the line should be drawn. The 
first experiences of childhood are stamped on a whole life. The 
earliest impulses of a day live and breathe into a strong and pure 
life all through the hours till night. We are affected in the day- 
time by the first mood of the morning. 

( Some persons in society never say a bright thing ; 
they are clay. Some cannot open their mouths without saying a 
positively dull thing; they are useless earth. Their social position 
is to wear colors and fill in the background. There are many 
talkers in society who have a vocabulary as small as a kitchen 
maid's, yet who do most of the talking. The repetition of words, 
and the redundancy of thought furnish as much brightness as a 
meal of dried applies twenty-one times a week. Such persons are 
empty minded; and flippancy or morbid moroseness can be the only 
offspring. True brightness can be acquired by all who desire it, 
and then the mind will scintillate with the modesty of a diamond. 
The surest way to achieve this much-to-be-desired result is to repeat 
aloud, to yourself only, the thoughts which you would say to 
others, and to correct them as you hear them. 

It is the habit of many to talk as though it was unim- 
portant whether the ideas, or even the language, were understood 
or not. Those who lack the power of voice and enunciation bury 
their thoughts in an unintelligible mass of sound, thereby reacting 
on the creative talent of speech. All things born must have some 
means of communication with living beings. The orator is dead 
to himself even, if he cannot use his voice. The writer must know 
how to use pen and ink. The poets of ancient centuries sang 
their fancies, those of to-day frame them in written speech; yet 
these jeweled galaxies of the mind could only have been felt were 
language unknown. To him who would create, unfold, develop, 
and give to the world the priceless gems of thought, the glittering 
and flower-spangled beauties of that rarer realm of life, there must 
precede in gifts the means and methods of expression; there must 
come the art of making sentences easily, the flow of language and 
the clear coinage of enunciation. 

Persons who can say beautiful things in a beautiful 
manner, who are unable to make themselves heard or understood, 



320 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

shrink back on themselves and lose courage, as has been the ex- 
perience with many a man and woman who would otherwise have 
proved themselves of untold value to mankind. It is not loudness 
of voice that enables one to be understood. If the vowels have no 
month action the utterances are not clearly made and not easily 
heard. It is not sufficient that the audience hear the sonnd of the 
voice — they should hear what is said. Language consists merely 
of syllables, syllables of vowels and consonants. One syllable differs 
from another merely in the fact that different vowels and con- 
sonants are employed, or combined differently. 

If a speaker or reader with more voice than brains 
should endeavor merely to make himself heard, he could do it by 
shouting or yelling unintelligible sounds, as the street venders do; 
the voice is heard, and distressingly so. But a quiet tone, accom- 
panied by a clear enunciation, will carry sense, in the form of in- 
telligible words, farther than the shouter's voice. A strong voice 
is of no avail if the vowels and consonants are not well formed and 
made. The vowels should be formed as far forward in the mouth 
as possible, and be accompanied by full lip action. One vowel 
differs from another only in a change of the shape of the mouth. 
The consonants should be made by the firmest possible contact of 
two parts of the mouth. 

C Conversation is often made the channel of expression 
of beautiful thoughts. It is an avenue of opportunity that should 
be made much of, for it is not possible to develop the brain and its 
best realms unless the channels of communication are employed. 
A thought that has never winged its flight out of the mind is dead- 
born. No better means of testing your magnetism, your dignity, 
your power and self-control, can be found than in the opportunities 
of good conversation. Do not, of course, become a mere display, 
nor an arrogant consumer of the time and attention of the as- 
sembly or whomsoever you are engaged with, but use the highest 
discretion. When others talk, listen. When others are -ready to 
listen, talk. It is an advantage to the wise to be heard. Remain- 
ing silent soon relegates you to a lower stratum. Between these 
two dangers you must steer your way with care and intelligence. 
In listening, throw your whole interest upon the thoughts of the 
talker; if you are as magnetic as you should be, you will be able 
quietly silence an empty talker, and open the way to a more fruit- 
ful conversation.J 



REALM OF nil. ESTATE OF PERSONAL \ll \l\ \li:\l. 321 

It is excellent to seek society, to make it if you cannot 
find it otherwise, to extend your acquaintance with refined and 

worthy persons, SO that the flowers of life may he cultivated as well 

as the flowers of the garden. Good society is the host school for 
both sexes. Where it does not exist humanity is barbarous. Tin 
Lest society is that wherein we find \\w best refinement, tie h< 

thought and the purest hearts. Etiquette is a code of conduct 
founded on common sense, and intended to establish refined cus- 
toms among people who interchange social courtesi*^. Bui w hat 
id etiquette in society is good at home. 

Caste in social rank is the true law of life. If men 
and women openly refuse to cultivate those charms of mind and 
manner which are within easy reach of all, they should be rele- 
gated to their proper rank socially. It is true, and lamentably so, 
that what is called the best society is often a mixture of good and 
bad; but even here the good has its opportunities. A few people 
make the personnel of the whole, and leaders are often magnetic 
rather than boorishly wealthy. No better ambition can be found: 
in life than the desire to rule the drawing-room; and the history 
of the highest caste of all cities and countries proves that brilliancy 
and merit, when magnetic, may lead the salon, even if wealth and 
ancestry are lacking. 

The magnetism that charms must be developed on 
charmable lines. It is a mistake to think otherwise. A lady, who 
had opportunities but no desire to make herself refined, once 
sought the aid of these lessons. "I just want to charm people," 
she said. "But, madam, do you suppose that coarse features, foul 
breath, discolored teeth, a snappy voice and masculine tread will 
aid you to charm the persons whom you meet?" "Why not, if I 
acquire magnetism?"' Well, why not? In the first place, the soul 
of pure magnetism, or the vital gift of pleasing and winning, has 
existed since the birth of the sky. All that pleases, and blesses 
while it pleases, is magnetic. The kind ways, the cultured voice, 
the smile, the poise of color, the harmony of music, the sympathy 
of love, are natural emanations from the soul of magnetism that 
permeates existence. For you, then, to be socially magnetic, the 
first step is to decree by act of your will that these charms shall be 
yours. 

In the realm of attainment you acquire the tempera- 
ment that makes your work, your efforts, your life even, a naturally 



322 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

magnetic success. Sudden adoption of habits must result in mere 
artifice, a thing that is pricked like a bubble when it is brought 
in contact with the real influence of strong men and women. You 
must be able to cope with the greatest. Do not depend upon the 
unreal. You need temperament; a fixed habit, a soul saturated 
with whatever is best, a character that is vital in its power; and 
these are the true magnetic temperament when they are charged 



" The leaf tongues of the forest, 

The flower lips of the sod, 
The happy birds that hymn their 

Rapture in the ear of God, 
The summer wind that bringeth 

Music over land and sea, 
Have each a voice that singeth 

This sweet song of songs to »i: : 
' This world is full of beauty, 

Like other worlds above, 
And if we did our duty, 

It might be full of love: " 



V 



REALM SEVEN 




a 



\Y/n~H a slow and noiseless footstep 
Comes that messenger divine, 

Takes the vacant chair beside me, 
Lays her gentle hand In mine; 

And she sits and gazes at me 
With those deep and tender eyes, 

Like the stars, so still and saint-like, 
Looking downward from the skies." 




I rje i^^bab^ o H Lorjbrol 



OVER INDIVIDUALS 



a 



THE face of all the world is changed, I think, 

Since first I heard the footsteps of thy soul 
More still, O still, beside me, as they stole 
Betwixt me and the dreadful outer Drink 
Of obvious death, where I, who thought to sink,, 
Was caught up into love, and taught the whole 
Of life in a new rhythm." 



" \ LL that I know of a certain star 

Is, It can throw (like mo angled spar) 
Now a dart of red, now a dart of blue; 
Till my friends have said they would fain see, too, 
My star that dartles the red and the blue! 

Then it stops like a bird; like a flower hangs furled; 
They must solace themselves with the Saturn above if. 

What matter to me if their star is a world? 
A^ine has opened its soul to me, therefore I love it." 



IT'S we two, it's we two for aye, 

All the world, and we two, and Heaven be our stay! 
Like the laverock in the lift, sing, O \^on\\{\ bride ! 
All the world was Adam once, with live by his side. 
What's the world, my lass, my love!— what can it do? 
I am thine, and thou art mine; life is sweet and new. 
If the world have missed the mark, let if stand by; 
ror we two have gotten leave, and once more will try, 
Like a laverock in the lift, sing, O bonny bride ! 
It's we two, it's we two, happy side by side. 
Take a kiss from me, thy man;' now the song begins: 
'All is made afresh for us, and the brave heart wins.'" 

(324) 



Trje Eshab^ of Corjbrol 




f OD, who gave iron, purposed ne'er 

That man should l>e a slave: 
Therefore the sabre, sword and spear 

In his right hand He gave. 
Therefore He gave him fiery mood, 

Tierce speech, and free-born breath, 
That he might fearlessly the feud 

riaintain through life and death." 




EMPERORS have lived who have had no control whatever 
over their subjects. Plain men and women have lived who 
have ruled over emperors. To be furnished with the 
physical force of armament and willing executives is the 
highest ideal of power in the minds of most persons; yet from time 
immemorial it has been known that a glance of the eye, a pressure 
of the hand, a word from the lips, has had the charm to sway the 
potentates of earth, and many a wayfarer of lesser caste. 

The art of controlling individuals is a many-sided 
study. It may consist of physical force, or of compulsion resulting 
from superior power or an advantage of position; or it may be the 

(325) 



326 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

outcome of fear, policy or some mental calculation, or the desire to 
follow some leader in whom the highest confidence is placed. When 
Wellington crushed his greatest enemy, he did not do it "by per- 
suasion, but by the outpouring of fresh soldiers upon tired ones at 
a moment when both sides were exhausted. This was physical 
force. The police officer who is stronger than the man he arrests 
induces the latter to accompany him by sheer use of his muscular 
vitality; while many a smaller and weaker "knight of the baton/' 
as he is erroneously called, has overpowered his victim by the 
energy of his will. This is physical magnetism. We well recall 
seeing a man of about a hundred pounds avoirdupois, hurry a 
keeper out of a store, without laying hands upon him, although the 
keeper weighed much more and had strength sufficient to throw 
the little man out of the window. 

In the cases cited we see the difference between the use 
of mere muscular energy and the use of physical magnetism. Then 
there are motives that are powerful instruments of influence be- 
tween individuals. This play of motive is the most far reaching of 
all the agencies of control, as it brings two parties together in mind, 
or may do so, where all other attempts to come within reach of 
one another might have failed. We see it in trade more often than 
in other channels of communication. The seeking of an advantage 
over another is not magnetic, for it is not noble; and those who 
"squeeze" their fellow beings make lifelong enemies, humiliate and 
often break the spirit of others, all for no real gain. It is better 
to win than to press the good will or acquiescence of others. 

1 477 | 



Magnetic-control should begin in simple affinities. 

This is the 477th Ealston Principle. By affinities is meant the 
likes or inclinations of another person that can be adopted or made 
to come into your own life for the time being. They are stepping- 
stones; and the simplest of them are the first flags of the pavement, 
if the homely figure may be allowed. It would be folly to an- 
tagonize in the start the person whom you sought to control. 
Human nature sets itself against any such challenge, and a con- 
sequent obstinacy or shutting-up of the mind might follow. 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTROL. 327 

It is never necessary to humiliate oneself in yielding to 
i he views of another. An affinity may be established where vie 
are not the same; but an open antagonism shovfld be avoided. A 
member of one political party should not bring up the question 
of politics to another, unless he seeks to change his views, in which 
ease he should first establish other affinities. There should b< 
some agreement to begin with. It may be assumed that a person 
of strong magnetic temperament sweeps all before him; but this 
only true when his subjects are of the lesser grades of will; it is 
necessary to be the equal of giants in this art. You do not wish 
easy conquests. There may come times when superior wills are 
pitted against you, and you must at least hold your own, if not 
conquer. No man or woman should ever make you a subject. In 
an age of liberty, the body should be free; the mind should be 
freer, and the wall-power freest. Let no one become your victor. 

Simple affinities are found by a skilful management of 
conversation. Etiquette demands that matters of religion, politics 
and personalities should not be broached; but if the person to whom 
you are talking insists upon doing so, you may easily find his mind 
by allowing him to express himself for a brief while; then turn the 
interest to other subjects. A too apparent agreement in anything 
is not policy, for its purpose may be seen at once. Shrewd minds 
are deep and perceive the trend of a designed conversation. Very 
soon the process will become one of mental culture in which the 
superior diplomatist will make the moves as on a chess-board, and 
his opponent will be forced to suit his choice of objects to the 
desires of his more accomplished companion. 

The best study of simple affinities is found in the 
methods of successful lawyers when they appear before juries; and 
the examples there seen may be learned and adopted in private 
life. The rules are the same, and the operations of one suit the 
requirements of the other condition. What a magnetic lawyer will 
do before a jury, any magnetic man or woman may do in exact 
principle before any other man or woman. Therefore the follow- 
ing illustrations are helpful in this study. It is not known that 
magnetic persons are the most careful, painstaking and thorough 
of all classes; they leave but little to chance, in fact nothing that 
may otherwise be controlled. So, when we see a lawyer looking up 
the private lives of jurors, we learn something of the care that may 
lead to success. 



328 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

The following illustrations apply to cases that have been 
doubtful; so evenly balanced that a straw might almost have 
changed them one way or the other. In the outset we will mention 
a very trifling incident that undoubtedly led to victory. It so 
happened that the lawyer was of the same political persuasion that 
was embraced by ten of the panel jurors, and he had two peremp- 
tory challenges at his disposal. By using these he filled out a jury 
of twelve party believers. In the course of the trial he lent a 
political color to his remarks, and even went so far as to attempt 
to draw the party line. The judge suggested that it might en- 
danger the chance for agreement in the jury box, and the opposing 
lawyers were glad of the "bad mess" he was making. After a ver- 
dict they found to their amazement that the jurors were one and 
all of the same party as that of the counsel who had used his two 
•challenges. His adroit movement was not the sole cause of win- 
ning; it merely brought the jurors into a common ground of like 
:and dislike, from which the magnetism of the lawver could secure 
its leverage and begin its work. 

When one sees the long train of victories secured by a 
great advocate, he does not realize the kaleidoscopic changes neces- 
sary to establish such results, unless he follows him on his career. 
This is a profitable means of studying the origin and use of mag- 
netic control through simple affinities. One such lawyer may be 
seen in a dozen different phases. We recall the case of a polished 
city attorney of the highest rank as an advocate, who had a very 
important trial before a jury of farmers in a distant part of his 
State. He had no knowledge of farming, nor of the character or 
methods of the tillers of the soil; and all the attorneys for the 
opposition were men familiar with both, and able in argumeur, 
which had a telling effect in such trials. The city lawver exam- 
ined the case thoroughly, for large interests were at stake: he 
^called his clients frequently to his office, and twice made a trip to 
them; he arrived at the county seat a few days before the case wi 3 
put on the short list, so that he might become acquainted with the 
atmosphere of life about him. 

He did more and what every successful advocate ought to 
do; he took his witnesses in hand, gave them a very careful exam- 
ination-in-chief, so that he might know what they were really worth 
in their knowledge, and he wrote down minutely all they said, even 
in the minutest details. Then he. unconsciouslv to them, cro— - 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF <<>STROL. 329 

examined them, to sec if they were telling the truth, or would 
contradict themselves. If he was satisfied that they were D 
honest, he discarded them altogether from the trial, and retained 
only those who could he believed. This Is right. He then began 

a sort of side-examination as to their ways of living, their moods 
and thoughts, by which also he secured much of the vocabulary oi 
that part of the country. Indeed, he became well fortified in the 
homely but forceful phrases and idioms of the people. A keen 
mind gathers much and loses nothing worth keeping. 

When the trial began the city lawyer had changed a little 
in his dress, but not so much as to produce surprise. One man in 
the box said: "He must be a country lawyer who has gone to the 
city to practice/' So much was a breaking of the ice that sep- 
arated them in caste. He had learned something of the crops that 
were raised in that locality, something of the hopes and prospects 
of the farmers for the coming season, and soon began to saturate 
the trial with bits of information that fell in like crumbs at a fea 
giving comfort, if no more. When the argument came he was 
dressed like the foreman of the jury; and to this he had come by 
gradations during the two weeks' struggle. 

The presentation of his side to the jury was a master- 
piece of skill in establishing a simple affinity. He did not flatter 
the members by profuse compliments, but came among them as a 
lover of country life, as one interested in the farmer because his 
parents had known the hardships and uncertainties of securing a 
living in that profession; he called it a "profession," not a branch 
of labor. Without being coarse or common, he evinced a vivid 
love for this vocation, telling them that the first language of earth 
was the Aryan, and the first known men of civilization, if not of 
the whole race of humanity, were called Aryans, which meant 
noblemen, because the tilling of the soil was the noblest of all 
occupations. In his methods and phrases he spoke as a tare 
and the whole populace assembled in the room were heartily sorry 
when he got through. They liked him. They looked with glowing 
eyes of enthusiasm upon his manly form and sincere face. The 
jury were in accord with his views, and needed then nothing hut 
his magnetism to win them. 

The principle is a great one. It shows that a smooth, 
pleasant, agreeable way of approachin.. arson is far better than 
an angular or vinegary method. Now, we do not pretend tl 



330 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

magnetism wins by such securing of a friendly feeling, nor by the 
affinity; but it does find the way shorter and the victory more 
easily attainable when opposition is lacking and an affinity is estab- 
lished. Such a process is the sure harbinger of success, if there is 
magnetism. It is even true that unmagnetic persons have won 
victories by the aid of affinities alone. We must not lose sight of 
the lawyer whom we have agreed to follow in his course. An im- 
portant line of business took him to the Far West. Before he 
arrived he had discarded silk hat and starched shirt. He dressed 
as the best men there dressed. 

The case was tried by the ablest of the lawyers in that 
section of the country, men who were immensely popular. He 
knew that his magnetism was to be tested to the utmost. He 
dropped way down to a rough style of talking, though serious and 
always dignified. He used idioms, slang and phrases that were 
new to him a month before. He tried to dress and look like the 
jury. He knew incidents of wonderful shooting; of the braggard 
tenderfeet that had come from the cultured East; of marvelous luck 
in gambling; of enormous capacities for whisky: of the meanness 
of Indians, the relics of barbarism, compared with which the 
saloon and poker room of the present day were palaces of regal 
splendor; and he impressed the boys with the fact that they were 
in reality the kings of earth; free, fearless and plucky. Such a 
change in a lawyer was a transformation, a revolution; but it won 
the case. 

Again in the culture of a metropolitan city, he shone 
as a man, a student, a polished speaker, unharmed by the rough 
usage of his cowboy experience, and free from the nasal twang of 
his bucolic career. If his metropolitan jury was composed of 
laborers, he knew them thoroughly, and could speak from their 
level; if mixed in character, he reached their sympathies, not by 
an undue display of the soft side of his case, but by a manly asso- 
ciation with them in ideas. And so he went on, from success to 
success. Some lawyers think it wise to browbeat and terrorize a 
petty judge; or to appal him with a multitude of decisions the im- 
port of which is rammed home by taunts of ignorance. A few of 
the weaker justices are overcome by such methods; but the best 
success is always attained by making honest cases as clear as day- 
light, and showing the judges how much they know, not how 
much they are in ignorance. 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTROL. 

A skilful lady is able to give most men ideas of how to 
establish a simple or complex affinity, either with one of her & 
<»r with a gentleman, if she is sufficiently interested to undertake 
the task. Any conversation soon shows the likes and dislikes of 
i he persons engaged in it; but you should be careful not to step 
upon a tender subject in such conferences. Be neutral, and let the 
other person do all the positive talking until you have made the 
discovery you seek; then establish the affinity, and handle it with 
the greatest care. 

i 478 1 

Motive is an easy channel of influence. 

This is the 478th Ealston Principle. Most persons are utterly 
lacking in motive, or have one in concealment if they are diplo- 
matic. It is the first duty of every one who would maintain a 
superior position to ascertain if there is no motive, or if one exists 
in the purpose of the conversation or communication, whatever 
form it may take. If one really exists, the next step is to see if it 
is near the surface and can be easily discovered, or is hidden and 
will not appear until the time is ripe; or, which is more important 
than all, to see if the true motive is kept in the dark and a pre- 
tended one displayed for purposes of deception. 

If it is perfectly clear that there is no motive at all, then 
allow the conversation to proceed along neutral lines until you 
choose to make such use of the meeting as you please. If the motive 
is near the surface, draw it in sight by encouraging the individual 
to talk on such matters as may occur to you, and keep yourself in 
the background. Sooner or later it will come out. If it is hidden, 
all you can do is to wait; but be as cordial and as encouraging as 
possible. In the course of the conversation there will be indica- 
tions of what is coming, and your own keenness will be sharpened 
by dealing with them as though you were merely waiting for them. 
If the motives are concealed by the expression of others, the person 
is probably dishonest and should be watched. 

Yet it is not always true that the statement or presenta- 
tion of one motive in place of the real one is dishonest. A. was to 
some extent in the power of B., and was being unduly oppressed 



332 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

by the latter. B. was unscrupulous, and had but one good trait 
in his character; he hated to see another person get the advantage 
of him or of any one else. A. took the trouble to show him that 
C. was securing such advantage over both A. and B. This was 
true. B. at once saw it; and, having the power, he became the 
antagonist of C, while strengthening the position of A. This was 
what the latter desired. His real motive won, but it has remained 
concealed even to this day. The false motive is the only one that 
became known. It was not false in the sense of being untrue, but 
merely as a blind. 

The other side of the motive question is what is in- 
tended by our principle. Your motive is not a matter of so much 
importance in the process as that of the individual whom you wish 
to control. Most persons are influenced through a desire to ac- 
complish a certain end. This is the root of evil in legislation. One 
man seeks to secure the passage of a bill that will place him in favor 
with his constituency; this is the first and most potent factor in 
politics. So that he accomplishes his end, he does not care what 
happens in other directions. Now comes along a certain member 
of the Legislature, who seeks the passage of a bill that every mem- 
ber would individually vote against; but he agrees to their separate 
matters, and proposes to throw in such favor the legislators who 
are behind him in his measure, thus appealing to their motives 
as reasons for aiding him; and they yield. This is common history 
in Congress as well as in State Legislatures, and is wrong. 

In private life many a person has failed in seeking to 
control the minds or wills of others; and, to their surprise, some 
brighter mind has stepped in and won with ease. A certain man 
holds a piece of land which is needed by EL, who has tried in vain 
to purchase it. The owner refuses to sell, as he has no reason to 
do so. By and by H. wakes up to the idea that men must have 
reasons for doing things; so he casts about for a motive in the 
owner which ought to prompt him to sell. Investigation shows 
that the town is being rapidly built up in another direction: that. 
following the history of other towns, it will soon leave tins portion 
as a valueless suburb; that he, H., is interested in checking the 
advance of greed in the wrong part of the town. Soon the t)wner 
finds that H. is right, and sells him the land at a price much lower 
than he would have willingly paid. A better house is built, and 
ihe spirit of growth is partly attracted in that direction. H. really 



REALM OF TEE ESTATE OF CONTROL. 333 

discovered this motive. This is an oft-repeated fact, and shows 
the lesson clearly. 

P 479 g 

There is an ether that fills all space. 

This is the 479th Ralston Principle. It is one of the most 
important of those that are connected with the study of magnet- 
ism. The proposition stated in this principle cannot be disputed. 
Even the densest solids are admitted to be composed of single par- 
ticles, known as molecules, having space between them. This in- 
fi nit esim ally small space is filled with the universal ether. Until 
our readers accept this statement as an assured fact, it will be a 
waste of time to proceed with these studies. If any doubt exists, 
consult the best scientific works of the world. This ether brings 
us light and life from the sun. Without light there can be no 
origin of life, and no long continuance of it. 

Sound is a mechanical vibration of the substance of the 
atmosphere; but any elastic solid, as steel, wood, etc., as well as 
water, will convey sound. A vacuum will not. Thought vibrations 
are ethereal, while sound vibrations are material. Light travels by 
the same medium as thought, goes as fast and as far, and its percep- 
tion may be clouded or extinguished by opaque matter, as con- 
sciousness of thought may be clouded or extinguished by disease or 
by physical defects of the brain. Light vibrations are ethereal, and 
are so infinitesimally delicate that they are terminated by opaque 
matter. Light cannot die; its absorption is a step only to its escape 
as electricity. All scientists now concur in the theory that light is 
undulatory, and vibrates or waves as it is transmitted, thus aban- 
doning the corpuscular theory which was advocated by Xewton. 

All scientists now agree that there is a universal ether, 
which fills all the space in the universe, and is also diffused among 
the molecules of which solids are composed. This ether is declared 
by A. Daniell, in his Principles of Physics, page 208, to be a 
medium for the transfer of heat through space; a medium for elec- 
trical phenomena, and a medium for the propagation of the waves 
of light; he therefore calls it the luminiferous ether. Maxwell 
(who is quoted by all scientists) has even measured the density of 



334 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

this ether, declaring it to be ™ MppsliTO oomoo that of 
water, or equal to the rarity of our atmosphere at a height of 210 
miles. 

This ether will permeate all solids and liquids with the 
speed of light, which travels at a rate of 186,000 miles per second. 
This ether passes through the hones, brain, flesh and liquids of the 
body with equal rapidity, and consists of active or absorbed light 
and electrical movement, constantly undulating. Thought and life 
are identical; light and life are identical; electrical movement and 
thought are identical; electrical movement and light are associated. 
Some day the newest discoveries in electricity will show that man 
is merely an energy of this kind, as far as all his vital functions 
are concerned; he will be made a part of the system which is fast 
being recognized as the source of all the physical and so-called 
spiritual laws of the universe. 

It is probable that the ether which pervades all things is 
intended as the great sea of communication between place and 
place. It is not at variance with the known plan of life, as far as 
man has ascertained it. Ears are made for air. Take air away, 
and you must take ears away, unless you can substitute some other 
means of communication between mind and mind through the 
natural senses. Nature is peculiarly simple, while being enor- 
mously inventive. Two human beings wish to exchange ideas; and 
there are just four ways in which they may do so. In the simplest 
of all four, they may convey messages by the sense of touch: a 
pressure of one finger may mean what it will; of two fingers, 
something else; of three fingers, still something else; of four fingers, 
another letter, word or idea; of all five on one hand, a still further 
idea. These may then be combined with themselves and with the 
other hand, until a full alphabet is formed, from which a system 
as accurate as that used in telegraphy may be made. 

It will be seen that the touch method of communication 
does not employ any medium of passage. The ideas are expressed 
in the use of the flesh against the flesh, and the process is neces- 
sarily slow and cumbersome. This is the real principle involved in 
telegraphy, although the different touches are marked off by the 
interruptions of the electrical current. It is akin to that used by 
deaf-mutes; for what they say to the eye, they can state in the 
dark if they are close together. Thus two girls, who were afflicted 
by the loss of speech and of hearing, could talk to each other by 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTROL. 335 

the hour after retiring at night, their hands being under the bi 
clothes. Life is too Full of opportunities thai demand rapidit} 
action, for any system of communication withoul a medium that 
permits distance. 

A little thinking will satisfy one that distance requiri 
means or medium, or else there can be no way of carrying the ide 
There oever yet has existed a method thai did nol require such 
means, except that of touch. To have to place the hand on an in- 
dividual whom we wish to address would necessitate contact, at 
there could be no general form of speaking to a number al a tin 
Nature realized the requirements of the situation, and proceeded 
to supply the needed means. She never introduces any superflu- 
ous matter; and if what is at hand can be made to suffice, she us 
that. The atmosphere was placed around the globe dense enough 
at the surface to supply all needs for breathing, and to carry on 
the hundreds of processes that are essential to plant and animal 
life. 

The atmosphere being already established, it was not 
necessary to create a new medium for communication. Had it 
been, there would have been one finished as soon as life was ready 
for it. The air was light, changeful, buoyant and capable of vibrat- 
ing in mass. This was sufficient. It was then necessary to provide 
an instrument capable of producing vibrations rapid enough to 
make an impression as sound. A fan passing back and forth with 
speed may disturb the air, but we do not recognize it; we need 
something that will carry itself a mile away, and no ordinary num- 
ber of vibrations will do this. Something is lacking. The speed 
of the fan is increased; still it is not enough; it goes faster, much 
faster than the eye can follow; still faster it goes, until there are 
vibrations enough in the second of time to produce what the ear 
can recognize as a tone. It is sound. It does not in fact exist, 
but is said to have existence because it seems to have, owing to the 
impression made on the brain. It seems to be a low base note at 
first; then, as more speed is added, it ascends the musical scale, 
and climbs to the higher notes, the top tone being the Pastes 
When the speed is too rapid, the ear can net recognize it. tor it 
blends away into nothingness. 

This is the medium for speech. It requires in the human 
body an instrument that is capable of vibrating the air, and t 
is found in the threat at the head of the air passage, called the 



336 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

epiglottis. There, under that little tongue', are two lightly hung, 
top-heavy pieces of cartilage, which vibrate with great speed when- 
ever they approach each other while the air is passing out of the 
lungs. It is a wonderful device. If it made but one sound, we 
could not talk, except by interrupting its tone, as in telegraphy. 
But its natural sound, when the mouth is wide open, is ah as in 
father; and, as the mouth closes part way, it turns to a as in mast; 
closer it makes a as in mat; a little closer it produces c as in met; 
then a as in mate; when most dosed it produces i as in mit; and the 
flattest of all sounds is e as in meet, which is made when the mouth 
is nearly shut. To utter the round sounds, the mouth shapes itself 
to round positions, the closest of which is oo in boot; and so on to 
the most open. All this is marvelous; to think that a mouth 
needed for eating, with lips, teeth, tongue and palate required for 
mastication, could make the changes essential to human speech; 
added to which are the consonants or touch positions, whereby a 
vowel is given contact and a new effect is produced. 

This is human speech, and its medium is the air. But 
this is not all. Sound, being merely the vibration of the body of 
the atmosphere, is not a reality. It is not a movement which you 
can feel, for its vibrations cannot be interpreted by the muscles. 
The nerves of the body are not sensitive to the fine action which 
is involved in sound. No finger can detect them, although the 
delicate fibres are able to find the lines of print on the smoothest 
paper. Nature makes sound live by reason of a still more delicate 
contrivance in the brain. The vibrations must be caught, and this 
is done at the drum of the ear by a little disc called the tympanum. 
It is connected by a nerve with the core of the brain. When the 
air, which is set in vibration by the voice of A., reaches the tym- 
panum of B., it sets that to vibrating in exactly the same way, and 
the sounds that leave A.'s mouth strike B/s ear. But they must 
be interpreted, or they will be empty, silent waves. In the head 
the nerve carries the vibrations in electric currents from the 
tympanum to the core of the brain, so that the sounds that leave 
A. J s mouth strike B. ? s ear and travel over tins nerve to his brain. 
There they produce agitation at a place where the least, the tiniest, 
the faintest of real motion is magnified into a world of noise. Of 
this much of the distance the real medium of air begins at the 
larynx in the throat, and stops at the tympanum. The rest is elec- 
trical, for nerves and brain are such. 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTROL. 337 

Had man been a fish be would have used the water as the 
medium of communication. Jt is not possible to Bpeak in tlie 
volume of water itself, but one can hear very readily, and each 
sound seems louder and is audible a greater distance away, owing 
to the greater density. A Mow is heard miles away. Tie' voice is 
communicated to the water by a method which alio speal 

to be out of it. Man was ool made to be a fish. The air is one of 
his means of speaking to others, but is not the only one. It is 
about him day and night, not only because he need- it in respira- 
tion, but also because he is dependent upon it for life itself. The 
air is not more than three or four miles deep as a useful envelope 
of this globe; even at a mile of depth it is too rare for some lungs; 
but it is more extensive in a highly elastic condition, some claim- 
ing a depth of two hundred miles, although it is likely that its char- 
acteristic composition as oxygen and nitrogen is not to be found 
much more than eight or ten miles from the surface of the earth. 

Out somewhere in space it ceases to exist ; but there is 
no place where all is void and empty. Men were not always con- 
veniently near, so that their thoughts could be communicated by 
the touch of the hands; nor are they always within the sound of 
each others' voices. If A. wishes to send a message to B. some 
miles away, and there is no telegraph system, he must write it; but 
he could not see what he wrote, nor could the person read it, unless 
another medium were established. Air is present day and night. 
Light is absent when its source, or one of its agents, is withdrawn. 
"We can hear, but not see in the dark. Light is an activity; air is a 
substance. Light may or may not be the medium in which it 
operates; but it certainly is a force; and being a force, it must have 
some means of passage. 

One theory makes light a series of waves on the bosom 
of the universal ether; another makes it a substance in and of itself. 
If the latter is trite, it is then its own medium; if the former is 
true, it is action, and not substance. It is of no consequence in 
this study whichever is correct. Its presence is action, and by this 
action the nerves of sight catch form; that is all. The shapes of 
things are cast in reflected waves against the great optic cable, and 
the vibrations of the latter go to the core of the brain, to be mag- 
nified, interpreted and made known. The action of light plays In 
waves along some medium; in waves such as we can catch from 
some far away star at night, whose tiny vibration has been millions 



338 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

of years on the way. Sound has limit. The universe is not large 
enough to limit sight. The broken, fragile ray comes struggling 
along to tell us that vast aeons ago its master-world sent it forth 
across the sea of space to apprise us of its existence; yet that world, 
and all the distant stars whose light we see. mav have been blotted 
out long before this planet came into being, for the rays go on f or^ 
ever. 

$. „ „ Bs 

Every influence has its means of communication. 

This is the 480th Ealston Principle. We know that thoughts 
and feelings are influences, just as sound and sight are influences; 
and magnetism is in, behind and the impulsive energy of them all. 
When the lightning plays along the cloud it takes its leap to earth 
as soon as the opportunity presents itself. When the electric cur- 
rent traverses the globe, it runs along the wires by which it is con- 
ducted, although it will not long stay pent up even in storage 
chambers. So, when the finer phosphorescence of thought impels 
its waves from mind to mind, it does not make a clear leap through 
void space. 

Nothing passes from one place to another unless it has 
its medium of transfer. Not in all the universe has such an act 
been known. The chasm is not possible. Nothing was known of 
the process by which sound was communicated until recent cen- 
turies; and light is yet being studied. So wise and so great a man 
as Sir Isaac Newton presented a theory that could not stand the 
test of modern examination; yet all who are familiar with the 
operation of light admit that it needs a medium of communication, 
either its own or some other, in order to reach the earth, and to 
pass through all the avenues of the day. And what is true of one 
influence is true of all. 

That thought passes from mind to mind by channels 
other than those of the natural senses is too well known to be dis- 
cussed at this place. Hardly an individual living is free from some 
experience that proves the truth of the claim; but the fact is that 
hundreds of ideas from other minds come to you each day. and you 
do not know it. Gray matter, wherever found, is capable of think- 
ing. Thought and gray matter are identical: the latter being the 



REALM OF TEE ESTATE OF CONTROL. 339 

result and subsequent cause of the farmer. Thought occurs not 
only in the bead, but in all oilier parte of the body, where th< i 
gray matter. Thought oot only pulsates in the cerebrum, but 
when excessive affects the entire body, causing an abnormal in- 
crease of heart action, and sometimes fever heal ending in bead- 
ache and loss of sleep. 

The medium of thought is the universal ether, which 
fills all space in the universe, and is also diffused among the mole- 
cules of which solids are composed. This ether is declared to lie 
a medium for the transfer of heat through space, a medium for eh 
trical phenomena; and a thought is life and genera n-s light by 
turning into electrical movement the absorbed light of the brain. 
This electrical movement vibrates wherever the universal ether 
exists, which is everywhere. Thought is an electrical movement 
originating in the brain or gray matter, and vibrating the ether. 

Two persons are walking along jthe street, the brain is 
active in each, and one thinks of a subject just before the other 
utters it. "Why, I was about to speak of the very same thing 
myself. How queer we should both think of it." These experi- 
ences are common. The subject, too, is often one which is totally 
disconnected from any previous topic of conversation, and is in 
many instances quite remote in character from the surrounding 
circumstances of the conversation. Persons of constant association 
and general sympathy are reading each other's minds every minute 
of the day without knowing it. 

Murat, the great Frenchman, standing on the edge of a 
precipice one day, in companionship with a supposed friend, sud- 
denly read this person's intention of killing him by pushing him 
over the rocks. He turned, and saw the man preparing to do the 
deed. This man afterward confessed that such was his purpose. 
A witness, who had baffled the skill of a sharp lawyer on crofi 
examination, was about to leave the stand in triumph, when the 
lawyer was prompted by some mysterious influence to ask a very 
peculiar question. It was the one question which the witness had 
hoped to escape, and his thinking of it impressed itself upon the 
brain of the lawyer. A personal friend of the author owes his suc- 
cess at the bar to his skill in reading the mind of every wine 
He has ferreted out more facts and terrified more knaves on the 
stand by hitting upon the true inwardness of the mind, than prob- 
ably any other lawyer in America. His success is magical. 



340 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

A well balanced magnetic brain will rarely ever lead a 
business man into error. Success depends upon the penetrating 
power of his judgment. All persons recognize the fact that mental 
impressions are conveyed from mind to mind; but how they are 
conveyed has hitherto been unexplained. It is not sufficient to 
know how they are conveyed. With a firm conviction of the truth 
of these principles well established in your mind, and a deep and 
lasting resolve to develop the magnetic wealth of the brain, you 
will make very marked progress in a study which has for its 
achievement the following great purposes: 

1. An active brain of the most healthy type. 

2. A growing mental activity. 

3. An impressible brain, capable of receiving the thoughts of 
others at will. 

4. A controlled brain, like that of all the grandest person- 
ages of the world's history, entirely subjugated to the decrees of 
the will; each department being opened and closed as desired. 

5. A nobler, better, larger life. 

1 481 I 

^ (£ 

Constant change and variation increase the mag- 
netic vitality. 

This is the 481st Ealston Principle. When we consider the 
facts set forth under the last principle, we see at once the strong 
and urgent necessity for a vigorous and ever active brain: and 
there are many other reasons why our present law should be 
adopted. Activity is the right arm of strength, and variety the 
constant refreshment of all our faculties. Law after law crowds 
upon us as we proceed to look into the subject before us. In an 
earlier principle in another book we find that the faculties are be b1 
preserved by their constant use. 

The employment of the faculties in any one direction a 
part of the time is strengthening and highly beneficial; all the 
time, it would lead to atrophy and breaking down: while to pass 
from one to the other would result in a shiftless career. What is 
meant, therefore, is that the faculties must be used so as to give 
them all the vigor possible, so as to prevent weakening by such 



REALM OF Tin: ESTATE OF CONTROL 341 

change as leaves nothing completed, and ye\ bo as no1 to hammer 
away at a single idea until the brain fails. Here are many lav. 
not in conflict, but, in the order of adjustment, working together. 
It seems on its face a contradiction to Bay that there mu>t be 
eternal change, daily change: yet that nothing must be given up, 
nothing left incomplete, nothing allowed to displace other matter-. 

The meaning is clear if we look further into it. Change 
does not imply the abandonment of anything. To carry a plan 
through to its end requires the evolution of its details by the law of 
progress. An ambition that stands still has a worthless subject- 
matter for its goal. Life is a highway, and all roads lead some- 
where. A man who stands still is not living. He may exist, but he 
is better off buried, if he cannot get started. Any plan in life is 
a series of change. Then it is not best to devote oneself altogether 
to one idea or one ambition. There should be a supreme goal in 
this life, but many minor ones also constantly being selected and 
attained. This is change multiplied. Nothing is deserted, nothing 
abandoned, nothing left to some shifting moods; but plans are 
carried to their ends in victories. 

Life itself is full of action in the small processes of the 
body; nature is busy in all she does in the growing period of the 
year, and tends to silence and rest in her frozen, unmagnetic period; 
and man should ally himself to her, in principle at least. When 
winter freezes the river and soil, when the clouds hang chilled 
with snow vapor, when there is a hush of bird and leaf through 
the forest, and stillness prevails everywhere, then the electrical 
vitalities of nature are at rest. The thunderstorms, heavily over- 
charged with lightning, are the offspring of summer, when all life 
is filled with excessive action. 

The man who would be most magnetic must be most 
active; not in the sense of small, wasting- motions, but active in 
the larger and fuller sense of mental and nervous employment. \ 

He who has the most to do, who really accomplishes the most, is 
the quietest in outward mien. He must conserve his expenditure 
in order to be able to do the work his greater schemes demand. 
The powerful machinery that sends its currents of life through 
thousands of wires of use could not withstand the leakage of its 
own storage, for the latter takes more enery than the former. When 
the electricity of the body has free waste through the nervous and 
restless movements, it is kept at low ebb, because accumulation is 



342 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

not possible; but when such, leakage is stopped, and the power of 
life is piled up in force, the regular use only stimulates it to a 
greater accumulation. Hence action is of the highest importance. 
Men and women who have most to do. give the least outward 
evidence of it in the hurry and rush of the body; the mind is con- 
stantly employed, and the faculties are perhaps strained to their 
utmost; still they go on gathering greater power. Xot only does 
much rest do injury to these faculties, but they are never at their 
best until the most is demanded. To accomplish much, it is neces- 
sary to have much to do; activity, change, variation — these are the 
impulses of life and of magnetic power. 

i S 

I 482 I 

Magnetism is a volume of electrical energy. 

This is the 482d Ealston Principle. When we seek to make 
our power felt in others, we must remember that a medium of com- 
munication is necessary; and this is the universal ether in the case 
of electrical power. But the medium is not alone sufficient. When 
the air was found to be an excellent means of communication for 
the voice, it did not do the speaking, nor could there have been the 
transmission of sounds unless there had been the energy some- 
where to produce them. This is at the diaphragm, where the air, 
being collected by an inhalation, is thrown by this great muscle 
against the vocal cords, which resists it, giving almost any degree 
of force desired. 

In setting up the electric systems which now abound 
everywhere, it is not enough to have the machinery and the wires; 
for they may be complete even to the acme of perfection; but there 
must be a volume of energy collected at the power-house and sent 
forth as needed. For one purpose this goes out in small quantities, 
for another in larger; or, for the greatest test of strength, the 
volume and the intensity are increased to their utmost. When a 
human being seeks to influence another, he cannot hope to do so 
with no force at his command. First there must exist the power, 
or at least the knowledge of how to get it at will; then it must be 
of sufficient^strength not merely to do the ordinary work of the 
day, not merely to take care of the little influences that do counter- 
work in oiwives, but to cope with the giants about us. 



REALM OF THE ESI ITE OF CONTROL 343 

There is nothing in the present book that ia Intend 
to take the place (.f the mechanical acquisition of electricity. That 
must come from the volume that precedes, where the many exer- 
cises do in fact lead to the accumulation of magnetism in almost 
unlimited quantities, to use an everyday term. Our purpose in this 
work is to take that power in ci and give it all its varied and 

marvelous uses; for these are many, and what they may accom- 
plish is far above expectation. So, to start with, there must be 
the volume of electrical energy always in the body; we may think 
of it at the brain if we will, for there it is most abundant; and 
from that place it gives evidence of its presence by the glow of the 
eye, and of its activity by the dilation of the pupil. These two 
propositions are so important that we shall consider them in the 
next pages. Let us suppose that you are studying the accumulati 
exercises in personal magnetism, in conjunction with the present 
book, and that you are able at will to summon this force for use. 
AVe are then ready to proceed further. 

p 483 § 

The magnetic eye has a phosphorescent glow. 

This is the 483d Ralston Principle. In later pages, soon to 
be considered in the present realm, we shall see that there are dif- 
ferent sources of electrical vitality in the body; and there are varia- 
tions of the eye-glow. Light is a reflection from outer influences, 
as when the day is thrown from the surface of the eye-ball; or a 
candle, lamp or gas light is seen to shine thereon. It seems strange 
that the weaker the eye is, the more readily and the more brightly 
it reflects light, as in the case of sickness, when the surface of the 
ball is glazed and shines unduly; while the stronger it is, the less 
susceptible it is to light, and the more it glows from its own power 
within. This is easily proved by ordinary observation. 

Self-glow, as we term it, when the light is generated 
from within, is one of the most important tests of health, as well as 
of vitality and electric force. It is not light, but mental electricity, 
or phosphorescent thought. To cultivate this is your pn sent pur- 
pose. Practice any of the tensing exercises of the first volume of 
Magnetism; rest from all magnet it- practice a full day of twenty- 



344 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

four hours; then go into a room so dark that no object can be dis- 
covered, give one very slow, steady, smooth, earnest, but not too 
energetic tensing of the whole body. Immediately close the eyes. 
If you have developed any magnetism at all, you will perceive a 
dead light or still glow in the front of the brain. Some persons 
can throw this glow outward into the air; others see it in the eye- 
balls, whether open or shut; others can carry it to the inner brain. 
In either case the result is valuable. Follow the exact directions of 
this experiment for two weeks, if possible, always resting from 
magnetic practice for a whole day before the above is tried. Keep 
a record of the results, written on thin white leaves placed in this 
book. 

The following experiment should only be made when 
the body is in good health and free from all depression. There 
must be a day's complete rest from all magnetic practice, preceded 
by a day of tensing exercises. This is required on the principle 
that all growth occurs during rest. The exercise that causes the 
growth does not itself bring it. Xo mistake is so common in mag- 
netic practice as to keep continually exercising, in the hope that 
the magnetic exercise brings the growth into a higher magnetic 
state. In physical practice, as in a gymnasium, continual muscular 
labor may produce exhaustion. In unceasing magnetic practice 
the results are not seen, but rest develops them. Your good judg- 
ment will tell you whether you practice too long at any one time. 
The rule is to keep at it as long as it produces a pleasurable glow 
or lively sensation; then stop, and renew the practice, but on that 
day only. There should be but three magnetic practice days in a 
week, and no two successive. It will be found that the svstem is 
more magnetic on the next day after practice and rest. 

EXPEItniEXT. 

At night after retiring, on a day of magnetic rest, tense 
the body, head, neck and brain, with the eyes closed; then strike 
each eyelid once lightly, so as to disturb the eye-ball. The blow 
must not be strong enough to do injury to the eye-ball. The effect 
seen is not light, nor any principle of fire, excepting the ordinary 
glow of dislodged atoms. This is the first step in discerning the 
magnetic fire of the eye. As a rule, it cannot be seen in the light, 
and is always most clearly observed in absolute darkness. Here 
may be noticed one of the incidental adjuncts of the exercise, aid- 



REALM OF THE ESI \ri: OF CONTROL. 345 

ing the larger experiments thai are made. The eye, under excite- 
ment, in some rare cases has a magnifying power within the brain 
sufficient to show atoms, and in a greater number of cases it shows 
molecules and every kind of atomic combination. 

The reason of this is clear to one who understands the 
nerve-life between the eve and that part of the brain which Ifi i 
cited by the optic nerve. A madman or a drunkard, in some in- 
stances, may labor under mental excitement sufficient to deraj 
this nerve, in which case visions of a variety of molecular combina- 
tions follow. The author was told by one drunkard that a cart- 
wheel, larger than himself, always chased him when the symptoms 
of delirium tremens were coming on; another drunkard was fol- 
lowed by some beast; another saw snakes, and so on through a v; 
catalogue of unusual objects; and several have given absolutely 
perfect descriptions of the atom, thus confirming certain theori 

In fever the eye, in a few instances, has magnified ob- 
jects in the room to a wonderful increase of size. The brain inter- 
prets the objects revealed to it by the optic nerve, and this inter- 
pretation is called sight when the eye is the agent of transmission. 
Blind people are often able to interpret more than others dream of; 
they have a glow if they are magnetic; they derive a correct knowl- 
edge of things about them, and see by the sense of this inner light. 
Should you be possessed with a degree of magnetism sufficient to 
enable you to magnify the corpuscles within the brain into their 
atomic elements, you must not overdo the practice by too constant 
repetition. Something cannot be made out of nothing; whatever 
you see in the eyeball, in the brain or elsewhere, is there. It is a 
fact, and there are many millions of things displayed. 

"She is comtng, my own, my sweet ; 

Were it ever so airy a tread, 
€My heart '•would bear her and beat. 

Were it earth in an earthy bed ; 
{My dust -would hear her and b 

Had I lain for a century dead ; 
Would start and tremble under her I 

tAud blossom in purple and red." 



346 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 



1 484 1 

i I 



h?i 



'he power of the eye is increased by proper prac- 
tice. 

This is the 484th Ealston Principle. It contains a truth, the 
importance of which has been rarely understood. The eye and 
brain act together. If you see a person about to strike you, his 
purpose will appear in the eye. The law of succession in the effect 
of thought over the body shows that the muscles of the flesh act 
last; the thought is seen in the pupil of the eye first: it shines there 
as it is being wrought in the brain itself; it then lights up the face, 
but there is an appreciable difference of time, say a full second, 
between its thinking and the expression on the features. When 
you notice the face aglow with the operation of the mind, it is not 
what is being thought, but what has been thought, that is seen 
there; and any one who is skilled in the interpreting the meaning 
of the lineaments, can quickly ascertain the difference between 
what is said and what is about to be said. 

In most cases the eye gives the cue to the change in the 
thought several seconds before the words are uttered. It is quite 
curious to note the travel or journey of the mind through the 
body; first, the eye; second, the features; third, the flesh; lastly, 
the voice. The speech never accompanies the thought ; even where 
the reply comes quick as lightning, as they say, it is not as quick 
as the eye, and an appreciable space of time is apparent. The 
magnetism of the eye has power over the brain, and the two stimu- 
late each other. We have often seen persons of the keenest mental 
force, who could not grasp a certain thought speedily enough, and 
who would excite the brain by quick, full movements of the eye- 
ball, first to one side, then to the other. It was like waking up the 
mind. 

The value of a quick and powerful eye cannot be under- 
stood until it has been acquired. It is of many-sided use. The 
speed of a gaze is of itself most important at certain times, and this 
is obtained by following out the exercises to be given in the next 
few pages. It is possible to attain a most remarkable rapidity of 
action by such practice, and some day you may need it. We recall 
the case of a man who could not read an ordinary page of a book 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTROL. 347 

faster than a child of ten would do, who spent two years on the 
eye exercises given herein, and acquired such quickness and ener 
of glance as to he ahle to read a whole page of difficult writing in 
a second of time. In another case a business man was ahle to do 
the same thing, although he never po€ d the power previous to 
the practice of these exercises; and he turned it to good account in 
a number of instances. A lawyer, by the same practice, was able, 
on a certain occasion, to detect the contents of a letter in the hands 
of the opposing counsel. It was a letter that the other side pro- 
posed to conceal or withhold; and this lawyer caught its contents 
when his opponent, in lifting up other papers, looked at this to see 
its purport. • He had less than three seconds' gaze at it, yet caught 
the whole importance of it, after which he turned it to account by 
cross-examination. The opposing attorney does not believe to this 
day that the contents were acquired by those quick glances of 
the eye. 

Nothing will stimulate the magnetism of the brain so 
much as the excited action of the eye. A single glance from a mad- 
man will freeze the beholder with terror. As all the eye move- 
ments of insane or frenzied people, which so appal us, can be pro- 
duced with equally terrifying results by a little practice, it enables 
us to at once grasp the simpler methods of beginning our control 
over others. The steps now to be taken are not difficult. The first 
thing necessary is to strengthen the eye in its three directions: 

1. The eyelids and surrounding muscular formation of the 
face. 

2. The inward muscles which control the eyeball. 

3. The eyeball itself. 

This lesson will be devoted to acquiring the true eye position. 

EXERCISE. 

No. 1. — Take a hand mirror, and sit facing the gentle 
light of the window. Look into the mirror, watching the upper 
eyelid of either eye, and note its location relative to the pupil and 
the iris. Everybody, of course, knows that the pupil is the central 
part of the eyeball, and is sometimes very small. The iris is the 
larger circle in which the pupil is located. The white of the eye 
surrounds the entire iris. 

The movement of the upper lid over a small space affects 
the entire appearance and meaning of the face. "While these move- 



348 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

ments are slight, they are easily discerned in the mind of the person 
making them, even though a mirror be not used. 

MOVEMENTS OE UPPEK LID WHICH PKODUCE EYE POSITIONS. 

First Eye Position. — Locate the edge of the upper eyelid half 
way between the pupil and the top of the iris. This means calm- 
ness. 

Second Eye Position. — Locate the edge of the upper eyelid at 
the top of the pupil. This means indifference. 

Third Eye Position. — Locate the edge of the upper eyelid at 
the top of the iris. This means strong interest. * 

Fourth Eye Position. — Locate the edge of the upper eyelid 
half way over the pupil. This means deep thought. 

Fifth Eye Position. — Locate the edge of the upper eyelid 
above the iris, so as to show a narrow line of white above the iris. 
This means excitement. 

Sixth Eye Position. — Locate the edge of the upper eye] id 
above the iris, so as to show as much of the white as possible. This 
means uncontrolled excitement. 

All the above movements may be easily performed ex- 
cepting the last two. There is not one person in a hundred who 
can assume a look of uncontrolled excitement without practice; 
nor is there one in ten thousand who cannot do it after a reasonable 
amount of practice. The use to be made of these movements will 
be explained later on. At the present time it will suffice to say 
that as all the movements may be acquired by practice, the only 
thing to do is to find the time to spend in the practice. It is neces- 
sary to become so familiar with them that you may know without 
the aid of a hand-mirror just what position the upper eyelid is in. 
When these have been mastered, the final eye position may be un- 
dertaken. Before trying it, however, the fifth and sixth move- 
ments must be acquired. In cases of difficulty the better way is to 
open the eyes as widely as possible, and stare very hard at a hand- 
mirror, putting all the intensity possible into the muscles of the 
eyelids. If this at first hurts the eyes, desist for a while. In time 
the exercise of hard and intense staring, if made ferocious, will 
strengthen all the muscles of the eyes. I have known many cases 
of weak eyes completely cured by a careful and judicious method 
of staring in the way described above. The better and safer plan 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTROL. 349 

is to devote one minute in each hour to this strengthening proc< 
of staring. In so doing, do not contract the brows too much; these 
should be normal in position. 

Seventh Eye Position. — Locate the edge of the upper eyelid 
at the top of the iris, as in strong interest, and at the same time 
bring the lower eyelid to the under edge of the pupil. This sig- 
nifies scrutiny. 

Having learned certain movements of the lids, the next 
step is to strengthen the framework of the eye, or that part of the 
face which surrounds the eye. Too many human beings are weak- 
eyed. There is no case of this kind which cannot be cured. To 
prove this, test the value of the exercises in this and the next two 
lessons. Too many persons lack control of the upper eyelid. They 
appear sleepy or lifeless at home, in company and before audiences. 
Too many persons pinch the face between the eyes, on either side 
of the temples, and underneath as well as above them. For this 
defect the chief cure is the open face. 

It is probable that some difficulty will be experienced 
in making the student understand the meaning of the open face: 
and perhaps still greater difficulty will be encountered in giving 
directions for acquiring it. The benefits to be derived from an 
open face may be stated as follows: 

1. The features absorb great quantities of light for the brain 
within. 

^ 2. This face indicates to others the calm control of the pas- 
sions. 

3. It smoothens the wrinkles. 

4. It beautifies the countenance. 

. o. A closed face is repellant, and its nerves are not in an ab- 
sorbent condition. 

Closed faces are those which seem to be shut up, and 
are generally wrinkled and knitted, but not always. Persons with 
weak eyes cannot endure the ordinary light of day. To go about 
"squinting" their faces into a closed condition. Some strong men 
and women of good eye-sight form a habit of doing this, entirely 
without cause. Persons who fret or woriw, soon show it in their 
"pinched" faces. Care, poverty and suffering leave their marks 
on the countenance, but the hand of art can remove them all. By 
the term art we do not refer to the adornment and paints or balms 



350 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

placed upon the skin. These do not remove, but merely cover up 
the defects. 

If the student will, without the aid of a mirror, attempt 
to move the muscles that lie at the temple near the brows, he will 
find he can knit the forehead just above the nose between the 
brows. This is the closed condition of the brows. In our unpleas- 
ant moods the scalp comes down over the forehead and produces 
the wrinkles which are generally supposed to be brought about by 
raising the brows. Low foreheads are the result of this scalp move- 
ment, over which few persons have any control. In order to under- 
stand how to open the face, we must get hold of the muscles, and 
must move them by their own efforts, not by any extraneous aids. 
To do this the better way is to shut up the face first. 

EXEECISE EOR MOVIXG THE EOEEHEAD. 

Contract the brows and wrinkle the forehead as much as pos- 
sible by bringing tjie scalp forward; then, by a reverse action, 
smooth the brows and forehead as far as possible. 

Always carry the face open; keep the mind upon it constantly 
until a new habit is formed, and then it will take care of itself. 

We will conclude this section with two remarks: 
First. — An open face indicates emotional supremacy, and is 
magnetic. 

Second. — A closed face indicates the lack of control of the 
emotional nature, and is unmagnetic. 

§ „ _ § 

Balanced eye -movements preserve the sight. 

This is the 485th Ealston Principle. It is of more than ordi- 
nary importance to protect the eyes from loss of vision, for we do 
not find weak-eyed persons very magnetic. When we meet a man 
or woman of ability we expect to find one who at least has been 
able to prevent the wearing of glasses. It is our candid belief that 
all glasses are unnecessary; and we say this after years of investiga- 
tion of the subject. We may be pardoned for repeating the follow- 
ing facts. It was our own work of many years ago that first sug- 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OP CONTROL 351 



gested the cure of far-sightedness, near-sightedness and \. 
of the eyes, from which most other local afflictions i . by pi 
serving the shape of the eye-ball on the one hand and stimulating 
its magnetism on the other. Yet the movements to be given bere 
do both. 

We have had reports from every variety of source stating 
the results of our methods, and we shall select a very few of them 
as means of encouragement to others. Here are two rather recent 
statements, hoth similar to one which we published some yes 
ago. A woman writes: "I commenced the study of advanced 
magnetism solely "because a lady friend of mine had studied it for 
years, and found that her general health was improved by it. She 
liked the help it gave to her vitality, and especially the strength 
she gained in the action of her heart. She wore glasses, but never 
cared for the eye movements. I took to that practice at once, and 
my eyes became regular, or what you call normal in shape; and 
then I could not use the glasses, as I saw perfectly well without. 
I then said to the lady who called my attention to the book: 'What 
would you give if you were to have your eyesight restored so as to 
get along without glasses?' and she said she would gladly give 
twenty thousand dollars. 1 asked what the book of Advanced ~* 
Magnetism (referring to the earlier edition of this volume) had * 
been worth to her, and she thought a great many thousands of 
dollars. Then I said: 'You may add twenty thousand to that, 
whatever it is, for the department on eye movement has restored 
my sight to me as perfectly as when I was a girl.' She found it 
true, and to-day she does without her glasses." The means of cure 
may be open to you, as the whole process is presented in this 
volume. 

Quite in line with this letter, is the statement of another 
woman, who simply wrote: "The exercises of your high-priced 
book have cured my eyes. They were very weak, and I wore 
glasses continually. I had spent two thousand dollars on my eyes 
with specialists, who made them worse; that is, they got worse all 
the time. Then, for three years, I struggled along with no medical 
aid and no treatment. I had a friend, whose eyesight was restored 
by your book; my husband would not pay the price, as he said it 
was too high for a single book; but he paid many times more for 
much less information than can be found on two pages of the 
hook. I saved the money, and sent for the volume, as yon know. 



352 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

He now enclosed the price for the same work for his brother. Ac- 
tions speak louder than words." That was all, except the names. 
It spoke mighty volumes. A very terse letter reached us, enclosing 
remittance for the book, and simply saying: "My glasses are dis- 
carded. Send the book to my son; his eyes are very weak." We 
gathered from the missive what the result had been in the case 
of the person writing. 

Let us proceed to these exercises and see what they 
are. It is well known that the nerves that move the eye muscles 
are directly connected with the electric batteries of the brain. 
Nothing shows so quickly the mind's intent as the human eye. It 
is moved by every mental feeling. In return it excites the brain 
by its own action. The student will begin to understand how little 
he controls his own eyes when the exercises of this section have 
been attempted. His inability to perform them should not deter 
him from persisting in practice. If we refuse to try to do a thing 
because we cannot do it at all, many great accomplishments in life 
would be denied us. 

First Eye Movement. — Open the eyes as widely as possible, 
and hold them open by the principle of tenseness mentioned in the 
Mechanics of Personal Magnetism. Do not raise or contract the 
eyebrows; keep them normal. Look hard at a hand-mirror held 
on a level with the head, directly in front of the eyes. While look- 
ing at this, try to open the eyes even more widely and at the same 
time tensely. 

Second Eye Movement. — Open the eyes as tensely and as 
widely as possible. Look at the little fingers of both hands held 
about, but not quite, an arm's length from the body, a little below 
the shoulders, so that the eyes must look downward a little. The 
palms of the hands must be toward the face. Xow separate the 
hands, still keeping them on the same height as before. Do not 
move the head, but move the eyeballs only, first to the right and 
then to the left, looking at each hand alternately. The hands 
should be placed as far apart as possible, and yet not far enough 
to prevent a focus of the eye upon each hand, without having to 
move the head. This eye movement should be performed with the 
third eye position, or strong interest. 

Third Eye Movement. — Repeat the second eye movement, ac- 
companied by the fifth eye position, or excitement. 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTROL 353 

Fourth Eye Movement. — Repeat the second eye movement, ac- 
companied by the sixth eye position, or uncontrolled excitement. 

Fifth Eye Movement. — Repeal the second eye movement, ac- 
companied by the seventh eye position, or scrutiny. 

Sixth Eye Movement. — Opening the eyes ae widely and 
tensely as possible, tip the head slightly backward, and without 
moving either the head or ihc eyelids, raise the eyeballs upward 
until the eye is focused on the ceiling as nearly overhead as prac- 
ticable. Now move the eyeball downward without moving tl 
head or eyelids in the least, and focus the Laze upon the floor 
near the feet as practicable. 

Seventh Eye Movement. — Repeat the sixtli eye movent 
with the following variations: Look upward to the right a 
downward to the left. This requires an oblique movement of the 
eyeball. 

Eighth Eye Movement. — Repeat the sixtli eye movement, with 
the following variations: Look upward to the left and downward 
to the right. y 

The great value of these eye movements will become apparent 
only after long and severe practice. It has been proved conclusively 
that they accomplish three things perfectly: 

1. They create brain magnetism. 

2. They strengthen the eyes. 

3. They brighten the eyes and beautify the countenance. 

The following questions from pupils arc anticipated and 
answered: 

Question 1. — Is there any danger likely to result to the eyi - 
from a practice of the foregoing eye movement? 

Answer. — It is safer to practice about ten seconds at a time, 
and not more than ten times a day, for the first three days. A tier- 
ward increase ten seconds daily, and preserve the same number of 
times, unless the eyes water badly. The only danger is in strain- 
ing the nerves of vision or the muscles about the eyes. When the 
'•yes get strong, as they will in time, the pupil oughl to practice 
five minutes at a time, twelve times a day, distributing tie time 
evenly through the day. 

Question 2. — 1> artificial light dangerous in these exercis 



354 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

Answer. — It is immaterial whether the light be natural or 
artificial, so that the student is not in it. The light should never 
shine upon the eyeball at any time. As will be seen in another 
lesson, light is not absorbed into the brain through the eyes, but 
through the features. It can never be too dark for these exercises, 
and a strong light in time will be easily borne if it is not allowed 
to shine into the eyes. It is therefore better to have the light fall 
upon the back of the head. 

Question 3. — Should the student form a habit of carrying the 
eyes tensely open? 

Answer. — Yes; it is better to do so, providing the upper eyelid 
is not raised into the realm of excitement. 



28 m*)&Mte)im^}^te%&%&mt&: 

3 486 I 

The health of the eyeball is increased by special out- 
ward exercises. 

This is the 486th Ralston Principle. A few very valua 
ideas may be compressed in a brief space. It is, of course, known 
that disuse and dark rooms are great causes of disease and change 
of shape in the eyeball. In caves the eyes grow totally blind. In 
dark cities the eyes are quickly affected. The natural rotundity of 
the ball denotes health of the eve and correctness of sight. 

The eyes should not face a strong light, but they should 
be in it, as their strength depends upon their activity, just as 
muscular strength depends upon exercise. The over-use of the eyes 
strains their muscles, just as any other muscles may be strained 
and injured. Beading in the twilight or in a dim light is nor 
good, if the eyes resent such use. Using weak eyes against the 
atmosphere when too cold, as at sea, has resulted in blindness. -V 
change of the shape of the eyeball injures the natural sight. 1 
is too round or too flat, the use of glasses is necessary to restore 
the focus or range of vision. All this may be avoided. All the 



exercises thus far given in this stage lead to a restoration of the 
natural shape of the ball. In addition to such exercises, the 
lowing movements should be practiced until the assurance oi per- 
fect health of the eveball has been reached: 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTROL 355 

First Movement. — Place the palm of each hand agaii -• the 
side of the face, as near the eye ae possible. The hand will extend 
the entire length of the face, the fingers just touching the top of 
the forehead over the temples. Move both hands up and down 
one hundred times. The skin must not be rubbed, it simply mo 
up and down with the hand as though fastened to it. 

Second Movement. — In the same position as just described, 
move the skin of the temples forward and backward one hundred 

times. 

Third Movement. — Repeat the first movement one hundred 
times, except that the right hand moves upward, while the left 
hand moves downward. This alteration must be carefully done 

Fourth Movement. — Repeat the second movement, but move 
the skin of the right temple forward, while that of the left temple 
is moved back; and thus alternate for one hundred times. 

Fifth Movement. — Move the skin of the brows over the eyes, 
upward at the same time, for one hundred times. 

• Sixth Movement. — Eepeat the fifth movement by alternate 
that is, move the skin above the right eye upward, while the skin 
above the left eye is moved downward. 

Seventh Movement. — Move the skin below the eyes upward 
together, passing over the cheek-bones one hundred times. 

Eighth Movement. — Eepeat the seventh movement by alter- 
nating. 

Ninth Movement. — Move the skin in circles in the positions 
given in all the preceding eight exercises. 

Tenth Movement. — Pinch the skin as lightly as possible, but 
sufficiently to hold it between the thumb and two lingers, while 
lifting it from the bony structure, of the face, including all the di- 
rections heretofore given in this lesson. 

Eleventh Movement. — Close the eyes, and, while closed, take 
hold of the eyeball with the thumb and fingers. Move it about in 
every possible direction, but do not use the eyeball roughly. It 
may be moved in any direction, no less than eight distinct move- 
ments being in use. One hundred times will be sufficient. 

Twelfth Movement. — Vary the last exercise by pinching and 
Battening the eyeball alternately. This movement alone has been 
known to restore the norma! shape of the ball, causing wearers 



356 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

glasses to discard them. Near-sighted and far-sighted people should 
practice these things. 

Of all the literature upon the unnumbered subjects of 
human health and life, not one line has ever before been written 
upon the gymnastics of the eye. It is more than valuable to man, 
and it quickly fades under our common system of neglect. You can 
attain brightness of eye, clearness of sight, quickness of glance 
and beauty of expression by constantly and faithfully practicing 
the exercises of this and the preceding lessons. 

How long shall they be continued? 

As long as life lasts. -^ 

We must eat and drink, and exercise daily for health, or sick- 
ness follows. Why not devote a few minutes three days in the week 
to the better care of the brain and eyes? 

Accept our assurance that no better beauty of the face and 
eyes can be acquired than that which follows the steady practice 
of these exercises. 

^ 4-R7 d 

The activity of personal magnetism is indicated by 
the dilation of the eye-pupil. 

This is the 487th Ealston Principle. As will be presently seen, 
there are several kinds of electricity in the body, which appear as 
varieties of magnetism, although the same original force may be 
the prime cause of them all. The eyeball is an irregularly shaped 
globe, the front of which is marked off by circles. Of these the 
outer line is the limit of the white, so-called, although it is blue, 
brown or muddy, as the temperament may determine. Next to the 
white is seen the iris, or color band. It is a circle that carries the 
hue of the general eye; some are blue, some brown, and others 
shade from these to darker and lighter; but all colors of the eye, 
when derived from the iris, are either blue or brown; when known 
as jet black, is comes from a distension of the pupil. 

The pupil is a hole or aperture within the band of the 
iris, through which the light passes from without, and in which 
the magnetic glow of the brain comes from within. The old argu- • 
ment, as to whether the eye itself has expression, is always an in- 
teresting one; the claim of expressionsts being that the lids convey 



REALM OF THE />/ ITE OF CONTROL 357 

all meaning of even the moods, passions and emotions. 'I 
true. The upper lid expresses a range of such meanings, while 
tli<" lower lid conveys the idea of scrutiny when raised evenly, of 
malice when raised inwardly, and of laughter or merriment when 
raised outwardly. We are ot opinion thai the eyeball a1 its wh 
is tin' key to health, and in the books of the Health Club ws ha 
outlined all such meanings. We are also of the opinion thai the 
pupil is the key of the magnetic condition. 

When the magnetic vitality is low, the pupil of the 
is contracted and uninteresting; when it is high and active, the 
pupil shows a corresponding distension, and varies as the condition 
alters. To this rule there is the exception of the abnormal ex- 
pansion of the pupil, due to disease or to a highly nervous tem- 
perament; and such eyes appear black because the pupil < 
much of t lie iris; and, being an aperture, like all holes, it looks 
black. Many of these abnormal distensions are <\^c to excess of mag- 
netism, left unused, and a fixed iris has resulted. Such i hould 
be trained until the pupil will distend or contract at will, and until 
this is done there is no assurance of healthy eyesight. Blindni 
has often ensued from neglect in this matter. 

Another apparent exception should he considered at 
this lime. The amount of light in front of the eye- has something 
to do with the opening and shutting of the band of iris. This is 
best seen when watching a (at. Let her face a dark corner, and 
the great pupils will open and almost till the eye itself; let in a 
flood of strong light, ami the iris will come over like two parts of 
a curtain and shield the optic nerve. The pupil then appears like 
a perpendicular slit in the iris. Now. a cat is instinctively on the 
alert for the sound of prey. Let her lace such a light as will shut 
up the pupils; then say to yourself that, after all, she cannot open 
tlie pupils except in a dark room if it is true that light alone con- 
trols tin 1 movement of the iris: and. while wondering if this is 
true, imitate the scratching sound of mice. If the cat i< deceived, 
she will expand the pupil-, even in the strong* 51 Light, show! 
that there is animal vitality within that dilates them under due 
excitement. It is not uncommon to - ing on a porch in 

the sunlight, with eve- closed, or half open. Attract her attention, 
and she will look at you with pupils almost invisible; yet, let a 
biid come iieai-. and in tic same light, the pupils will ml 

enormously. 



358 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

In human beings the same law holds- good, whether the 
magnetism is physical, mental or emotional. A young lady be- 
comes alive in her conversation; and as the interest or excitement 
increases, the pupils of her eyes expand. As the orator warms up 
to his work, if he is not magnetic, he will use more action and more 
noise of voice; but, if he is magnetic, his voice will steadily grow 
richer, while the pupils of his eyes expand little by little. Blue 
eyes, gray eyes, and all light shades, come to look black when the 
speaker, the orator, the singer, or the converser is swayed by the 
action of personal magnetism. This law is so valuable that it 
should be followed up; and, for this reason, we append exercises 
that help to increase the special magnetism of the eye. The work 
to be given in this lesson is of more than ordinary importance, for 
it opens the way to much of the success that may follow. 

Sit alone in a room. Make the body tense. Look at a 
spot on the wall some eight of ten feet away. Increase the tension 
of the muscles of the brain as you fix your eye upon the spot. Look 
away, and rest the eye. 

First Exercise. — Again look at the object before you, at the 
same time exercising the will-power of the brain upon an imaginary 
line leading directly from the center of your brain to the spot on 
the wall. Cause this imaginary line to revolve to the right while 
tensing the brain easily, though energetically. Increase the speed 
of the revolution of this imaginary line to the right, while using 
will-power as much as possible with tension. As you succeed in 
transferring the strength of the tension to the dominant force of 
the will, you will recognize a new power in your being. Careless, 
hasty, ill-prepared practice will be useless. The pupi]s who suc- 
ceed in this, the grandest of all training, must come to the class- 
room with thoughtful, earnest minds, free from other cares, deter- 
mined to win the full measure of gain from every minute spent in 
the pleasant task. 

Second Exercise. — Eepeat the last exercise, and continue the * 
revolving energy of the imaginary line toward the left. In both 
these exercises do not proceed farther than the eye can watch the 
object easily; and in case a blur comes over the object, withdraw 
the gaze at once and rest. 

Third Exercise. — Eepeat the first exercise by commencing 
with the revolution of the imaginary line at its greatest speed, and 
gradually lessen it, until you bring this line into a slower speed. 



REALM OF Till. IK OF CONTROL 359 

Fourth Exercise. — E third exercise with the Line 

solving to the left. 

Fifth Ecxercisc. — Commence the fi] ercise,, and cause the 
revolving line to commence as slowly as possible; then, without 
the slightest activity of even the smallesi part of the body, grad- 
ually increase the spead of the revolving imaginary line, until the 
minute spot on the wall is lost in a blur, and a faint white line of 
phosphorescent glow is seen extending from the eye to the spot. 

Sixth Exercise. — Repeat the same to the left. 

^ ~ ' | 

| 488 

In the highest magnetic degree the eye gives forth 
lightning. 

This is the 488th Ralston Principle. When the light of the 
hall or room are favorable to the view of the eyes of a magnetic 
speaker, it is possible to see lines of glowing phosphorescence 
streaming forth from the pupils. This more often becomes visible 
during the performance of tragedy, when the footlights are low- 
ered. Phosphorescence is not strong enough to withstand com- 
petition, unless the speaker is full of electrical vitality. We have 
seen, and have heard of others who report the same experience, 
the flash of the eye in many a person tinder due force of thought 
or magnetism; and it is not by any means uncommon. 

Practice of the right kind always brings results in the' 
shape of strength and greater accumulation of power. The exer- 
cises now introduced have been instrumental in effecting such 
end. The eye itself is capable of magnetic movements, executed 
with lightning-like rapidity. These stimulate a most need vitality 
in the optic nerve. 

First Practice. — Place the eye in any one of the following 
positions: 

a. Right level; that is, the eye is to pass as far as possible 
a right position on its level, without turning the head. 

b. Left level. 

c. Right ascending. 

d. Left ascending. 

c. Right descending. 



360 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

f. Left descending. 

g. Direct ascending. 
k. Direct descending. 

Pass from any one of these to any other of them in a straight 
line. Then take all of them in turn. 

Second Practice. — Place the eye in any one of the foregoing 
positions, pass as quickly as possible to another, and return to the 
one first taken. This double movement must be made with lightning 
rapidity, with no waiting at the first point reached. Then proceed 
to make double movements in all the positions. 

Third Practice. — Place the eye in any one of the foregoing 
positions, pass with lightning rapidity to any other one, and on to 
a third, and then back to the second and to the first all in one 
movement. Then proceed to make quadruple movements in all 
the positions. 

Fourth Practice. — Imagine a streak of lightning passing from 
point to point in one flash. Involve at least six different directions 
in one such flash. 

Fifth Practice. — Take two books, one on the right and one 
on the left of the table; throw the eye to a single word on the page 
of the right-hand book, and, as soon as it is seen distinctly, glance 
to a single word on the page of the left-hand book; as soon as it is 
seen distinctly, pass the eye with lightning rapidity to the first 
word, and if it is not easily found, compel the eye to hunt for it 
until it is seen; then pass the eye back to the word on the left-hand 
page, and proceed as just described. 

The purpose of this exercise is to compel exact lightning 
movements. This may require a day, a week, a month, or a year. 
The exercise must be persisted in until perfectly accomplished. It 
is the most useful accomplishment which any person can acquire. 

The following exercises have achieved the most remark- 
able results in magnetizing the eye. The first set will be partial 
review. 

LEVEL EYE MOVEilEXT. 

Take a standing or sitting position, and remain dead still dur- 
ing the entire exercise. Look at some object as far to the left as 
possible, without moving the head from a front attitude; then fol- 
low an imaginary line slowly and steadily to the right as far as 
possible, without moving the head. To be performed correctly. 



REALM OF TEE ESTATE OF CONTROL -861 

the eye should move very smoothly and change its focus without 
jerks. 

Repeat the same movement very slowly, and with a tense 
movement of the muscles of the e\ 

Repeat the same exercise as lasl described, excepting as to the 
movement, which should be slow, but not quite as slow as before. 

Repeat the same with u normal movement — that is, neither 
slow nor fast. 

Repeat the same with a rather fasl movement of the eyes as 
intensely as possible. 

Repeat the same with as rapid a movement as possible, very 
intensely; move the eyes back and forth repeatedly, following the 
imaginary line. This line should be about three feet from the 
floor, although the height is immaterial, so that it remains of a 
uniform elevation. 

THE PEXETRATING GLANCE. 

It is better for the student not to practice this until he feels 
a consciousness of his growing personal magnetism. To be prac- 
ticed at its best, it is necessary for two pupils who are engaged in 
this study to meet solely for the purpose of engaging in the coun- 
terpart work of the Fourth Peculiar Exercise. Only two persons 
must meet for this purpose. If both of them are students of Per- 
sonal Magnetism, the results will be much more satisfactory; but if 
such is not the case, some other means should be adopted. 

The two persons who are to engage in this exen i- 
should select some room where the light is mild, neither very 
bright, nor very dim, and where there is no moving air. The light 
need not shine in the face of either party; if it should, that per- 
son will find some difficulty in maintaining his own glance. Sit 
facing each other, with the knees touching, both feet fully on the 
floor and the palms of both hands on the legs near the knees. Put 
the eyes in the position of Strong Interest; the brows normal; that 
is, neither raised nor lowered, and the face open. All these are 
essential requirements. Sit upright. 

Look straight into the pupil of the eye of your col- 
league; whichever eye you look into first, look into all the time 
that glance is being maintained. There must be no winking, no 
resting of the eye, nor any movement of the body. All must be 
dead still. It is a most important magnetic principle that we 



362 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

should never perform an act of any kind unless there is thought 
behind it directing it; therefore it is necessary to keep the mind 
active while the glance is being maintained. Make an effort to 
say mentally these words: 

"I can and will out -look you!" 

Say them to your colleague, not to yourself. Say them con- 
stantly. Mean them. Throw your whole character into them. If 
at any time you should find your supremacy waning, very gradu- 
ally close the hands into the Increasing Tension. This will cause 
the glance after a while to absorb a like nervous intensity. 

At the first attempt at the Penetrating Glance, repeat the 
above line only twice, and lower or remove the eyes slowly without 
moving the lids. At the second attempt repeat mentally the above 
line four times, and so on, until by adding two repetitions to each 
successive trial, you have been able to repeat the line thirty tim< s 3 
slowly and with nervous energy. If in the exercise the air becomes 
dark, it is better to stop, although no ill has ever been known to 
accrue from that sensation. ^ 

Take a favorite clog, one that can be trusted, and, look 

him straight in the eye in the same manner, constantly repeating 

the line: 

''"You are afraid of m 

Accompany this by the eye in the position of Strong Intei 
sometimes varied into excitement, in which case the brow will 
raised slightly. Feel the meaning of the line. Make it tense «i- a 
thought, and accompany it by the Gradually Increasing Tensi< n 
Exercise. The author has driven a dog into insanity by the glance 
of the eye, and could subdue the most ferocious beast in the same 
way. 

Take a boy or girl younger than yourself, say of the 
age of from ten to seventeen, and talk vigorously, while glancing 
steadily into the child's eye. Do not talk nonsense, but make some 
sensible remarks of interest. Note the result, and forward the same 
to the publishers of this work. Some persons are able to keep a 
child, from looking into the eve: others can hold the dance of a 
child, and prevent it from looking away. Repeat the same exercise, 
without words, and report the result. 

Such practices should be frequent ; but the glance 
must have some powerful living thought behind it: if it does not, 

IOC ' 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTROL. 363 

it is a mere stare arid empty. Think in looking; think in talking; 
think in moving. Nothing must be done without thought behind 
it, directing it. 

THE WALKING EYE MOVEMENTS. 

The importance of the present exercise will never be appre- 
ciated until time has proven the thoroughness of the practice. It 
ranks as one of»the very best. 

The pupil must walk in the magnetic step described in the 
first volume. Walk in a straight line. Before starting, look 
straight ahead, and, keeping the face and head still, turn the eyes 
as far as possible to the right. Take three steps, and turn the eyes 
to the left as far as possible, the face still looking ahead. After the 
next three steps, move the eyes to the right, keeping them there 
until they are to be moved Lo the left. The walking must be con- 
tinuous; that is, do not halt at every third step. The eyes should 
be in the position of Strong Interest, the face open, and the brows 
normal. In walking bear the weight firmly on the ball of each 
foot, the heel touching the floor, but not carrying the weight. 

The exercise may be varied by moving the eyes very rapidly 
while walking very slowly. 

Be sure that the muscles of the eyes are very tense all the 
time. 

I 489 I 



The brain is the engine of magnetic energy. 

This is the 489th Ealston Principle. The human brain is an 
organ of great and mysterious power. In its activity it controls 
our intellectual, moral and physical forces. After death, or after 
an accident, and before death has ensued, when the substance of 
the brain is exposed so that it can be examined, we find nothing 
that impresses us with the awful vastness of its power. In the 
present part of this work it is unnecessary for the student to enter 
into a physiological investigation of the anatomy, action strength 
or weakness of the brain. While it is well to know all these, yet 
such knowledge is neither a help nor a disadvantage in the per- 
formance of the exercises to be given in this phase of the work. 

Until the system of magnetic analysis was introduced 
no man in the world has been able to tell what thought is; nor can 






364 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

he attempt a description of the process of mental action, even in 
its intellectual state, much less in its workings, as the originator 
of the will; and still less in its emotional condition. Xo human 
eye will ever see the brain at work; and even if the skull could be 
raised during life, the aid of the most powerful microscope would 
probably disclose only the following conditions during activity: 

1. The flow of an acidulous fluid over the convoluted brain. 

2. A contractile action producing something like fine wrinkles 
in the surface of the brain. 

3. A fiery glow or fire, permeating the whole brain, and more 
particularly that part which is at work, and resembling the so- 
called phosphorescence of the sea. 

While, therefore, it may be unnecessary to attempt 
to acquire too much science in this work, it is essential to keep in 
mind the three following divisions of the human being: 

1. The intellectual. 

2. The emotional. 

3. The will. 

The last named is the most important, for the reason 
that in the magnetic control of others it is the direct agency of 
success. The will may be cultivated to a remarkable degree in 
every person who has the patience to perform the exercises devoted 
to that work in another part of these advanced lessons. 

Without cultivating, developing and strengthening the 
will, the other two divisions of our being are useless in our contact 
with mankind; without it the emotional tends toward insanity, and 
the intellectual dries up the magnetism of the body: or. to quote 
from another, too much intellectual development without a e - 
responding growth of the will-power makes "a bilious skin, bri: 
bones, large joints, heavy eyes, and a skull full of wrinkled brains 
that rattle like dry beans in a pod." The world contains thousands 
of very intellectual people who will always remain in obscuri 
for the reason that their development has been one-sided. 

Many a person of strong will-power has achieved the 
highest success in life without the aid of intellect. Probablv every 
student of these lessons knows of this fact in his own community. 
The will, united with the emotional, makes a combination of still 
greater value, and the union of the three is the greatest possi' 
power. Whatever the combination may be. the first is essential. 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTROL. 365 

The* conventional division of the being into the mind, soul and 
body is correct, except when other terms have been substituted for 
them, as for instance, the mental, moral, physical and will. The 
term will has often been used as a synonym for physical. This is 
quite incorrect. The will is "the power behind the throne," con- 
trolling the mental, moral and physical, or in proportion to the 
development of each. 

In the magnetic control of others, the will is much 
exercised. There must, however^ be in the body and in the brain 
an accumulated quantity of magnetism, and the power to create 
an unlimited supply for use when desired. The first volume of 
exercises is designated to partially effect this purpose, and is there- 
fore either a precursor or a companion of the present series of 
lessons. If the student has completely mastered the first book, he 
should, nevertheless, use it in connection with this. "Habitual 
Regime" must be insisted upon most rigidly. The lessons in per- 
sonal magnetism teach the pupil how to accumulate great quanti- 
ties of magnetism in the body; but the work of creating it in the 
brain and exciting it there for action, is left to the present series 
of lessons. 

The activity to which the brain will be subjected must 
not be regarded as exhausting. The contrary will be demonstrated 
to be the fact before this work is completed. There are no excep- 
tions to the assertion that all practice in the art of personal mag- 
netism builds up splendid brain power, fortifying it against mental 
derangement, preparing it for hard study, and giving to it the best 
life of which it is capable. Remembering that the habit-making 
exercises of the preceding volume must be constantly practiced, 
and that the whole work should be a companion to this, we will 
proceed to furnish a series of exercises for creating magnetism in 
the brain, and will explain the mode in which this influential power 
may be excited into action. To possess personal magnetism is one 
thing: to know how to use it is another. 



"/;/ wit, as nature, what affects our hearts, 
Is not iff exactness of peculiar parts ; 
' Tis not a lip or eve we beauty call, 
''But the joint force, and full result of all." 



366 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

* 490 ^ 

*> § 

Magnetic influence is driven forth upon the ether- 
sea in waves of energy. 

$ This is the 490th Kalston Principle. The ether-sea is a ^ 
medium of communication, like air or water; excepting that it 
goes among solids as though they .were worlds of orbs separated by 
great chasms of space. If a man could stand upon a molecule of 
the most dense and compact solid, as small in proportion to that as 
he is in proportion to this globe, the nearest molecule might be as 
far away as are the planets of our system. It has for thousands 
of years been supposed that all matter is held in such control, and 
that mind and magnetism sway molecules at times out of their 
relation to their fellows in structure. It used to be said of the 
will that it was capable, like faith, of controlling all atoms, par- 
ticles and molecules. An old but respected writer say-: "The will 
is the spontaneous power of the mind to make particles swerve 
without variation of their vis znva/ 3 and another says, in reply: 
"This doctrine of controlling particles without changing their vital 
energy is untenable." In dealing with the brain-energy, therefore, 
it is essential that we ascertain first the nature of these parties - 
which may be controlled by the mental operations, if indeed they 
can be; and this question is entitled to some attention here. 

Take a drop of water and look at it through a powerful 
microscope; we see an aggregation of life and motion. A stronger 
microscope is applied; the drop of water has now assumed an im- 
mensity that is marvelous; yet its component parts are so small that 
the most searching magnifying power cannot produce them for 
the eye to behold. If a man were to collect a million of small shot, 
he would have but a few quarts in bulk. A mountain contains so 
many millions of small shot that, if the figure 1 were written down 
but once for each million times a million of them, the mind would 
be dazed in contemplating the repetitions of the figure 1. How 
many small shot would be contained in the massive earth? 

A drop of water is thus composed of infinitely sn 
particles. Sir William Thomas said: "If a drop of water wei 
magnified to the size of the earth, the molecules which cdmp< - 
would appear no greater than small shot." A molecule is said 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTROL. 367 

be the smallest mass of any substance which is capable of existi 

in a separate form; that is, the smallest pari into which it could be 
divided without losing its chemical identity. When a molecule is 
divided into its parts, these are called atoms. Thus a drop of 
water, if it were magnified to the size of the earth, would present 
the vast number of molecules referred to, and yet this would be 
capable of further division into atoms. This is the old theory; 
let us examine it. A microscope is helpless, and only by effecl does 
it disclose a few of the facts which are hidden from the brain. 

Science tells us that "an atom is the unit of matter;' 
"the smallest mass of an element which exists in any molecule;" 
"a hypothetical particle of matter so minute as to be incapable of 
further division." The great and good men of modern times, in 
and out of religion, are accustomed to make use of the word '•atom" 
as a convenience in the study of life; while all have considered the 
theory as purely hypothetical. No man has said that he knows 
there is an ultimate indivisible particle. 

Tennyson, in "Lucretius," cries: 

" The gods, the gods! 
If all be atoms, how then should the gods, 
Being atomic, not be dissoluble. 
[P{ot follow the great law?" 

As far as our universe is concerned all parts of it are dis- 
soluble, and no particle of the human body is intact. But in this 
general dissolution is there a limit — a. stopping place? If not, then 
we must face the monstrous assertion that particles, by constantly 
subdividing, become finer than nothing, and this is hopelessly un- 
true. Yet, be this true or not, it is a fact that the greater the sub- 
division, the more the atoms of matter must expand their bulk into 
space; a drop of water reaching possibly a rarity equal to the dis- 
tance from the earth to the moon in a single straight line. This 
extended bulk is connected and associated. It is the ether-sea, and 
along its tides the waves of thought, of feeling and of magnetism 
speed with a rapidity greater than the flight of the sunray. Noth- 
ing is so swift as thought. 



368 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

^ 491 § 

Ether is composed of elemental atoms. 

This is tlie 491st Ealston Principle. It is not a theory, but a 
law and a fact combined, of which much more is to be said in the 
book of the one hundredth degree, All Existence. Xature is eco- 
nomical to the last degree; and out of her wonderful simplicity she 
accomplishes results that man in his deepest inventions could never 
dream of. Matter needs but one atomic structure to make all that 
exists. Let that single particle be endowed with a trinity of three 
laws, attraction at one end, repulsion at the other, and revolution 
at its center, and every chemical element, every law, every force, 
every form may be accounted for without the slightest difficulty. 

This trinity of three endowments is essential ; two will 
not suffice, and four are unnecessary. Even so difficult a subject as 
that of light becomes easy when these three laws are applied. 
Xature needs no other in the sky than that which is composed of 
elemental atoms; and with this she can build the sun and the 
planets, besides endowing them with life of every kind. Chemical 
action, from its explosion to its quietude, may be accounted for by 
these three laws. Adhesion, with its variations from the least to 
the greatest, is likewise explained; as is also the law of gravity and 
electricity, together with every known thing or operation. How 
this is done is considered in the philosophical work of the one hun- 
dredth degree, All Existence. If nature is able to build all exist- 
ence from a single atomic structure, it may be set down as certain 
that she will do so. and has done so. In all her prodigality there 
cannot be found a wasted piece of matter or a wasted principle. 

When it is kept in mind that this ether-sea is universal: 
that it penetrades solids as though they were not present: that it 
glides between the molecules of matter as light passes between the 
stars in the sky: then we can get an idea of the all-pervading activ- 
ity of this ether. A sea that lashes its waves upon the shore of an 
island, far inland, will carry to that island, and take from it. such 
messages as are borne upon that sea. whether from di>tant or from 
closer ports. So the mind, being in part a solid, is touched by the 
currents that play against its life, and needs only the knowledge of 
such vibrations and the vocabulary of their meanings, in order to 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTROL. 369 

interpret them. It requires time to catch the sounds of yoweia and 
consonants in words; and few persona to-day are able to distinguish 
a in mast from a in mat or a in mar; so time and expres.-ion are 
necessary to the understanding of other waves. But intuition has 
already made this possible. 

1 492 I 

The physical energy throws the white fire of force. 

This is the 492d Ralston Principle. It relates to the muscular 
system as the predominant feature of the exercise of power which 
is displayed. It is not claimed, that the mental or the nervous 
energies may be absent in the use of the muscular activity. The 
parts of the body cannot be separated from each other. It is true 
that the mental brain may have only an automatic consciousness 
of what is done by the muscles; but this apparent separation is due 
to the fact that nature has purposely provided a separate brain to 
direct the habitual movements of the body, for no person could 
remain long active who had to think about each motion of the 
muscles. It is fortunate that the cerebellum is entrusted with that 
duty. For instance, no person could play the piano, using the 
fingers in exact touch on the multitude of keys, unless the con- 
sciousness of each individual action of the ten fingers were assumed 
by a secondary brain. 

The magnetic energy of the body differs in many ways 
because of variations of use; while probably originating in the 
same general source. As the standpoint of observation may be 
changed, the consideration of the subject may likewise undergo 
change; and, in this series of principles, we propose to adopt the 
use of colors merely for convenience of description. The harshest 
variety of will-power comes from the muscles. These are found 
not only in the so-called muscular system, but also in the tissue 
structure of the body, whereby the flesh is built and held together. 
This department of life is typical of force. While it cannot be 
separated from other parts of the body, and is dependent upon the 
nervous system as well as upon the mental, it is capable of pre- 
dominating at times. So may the nervous power predominate in 
the exercise of the will; and the same is true of the mind. All are 



370 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

interwoven in the acts of life; yet each may. under certain condi- 
tions, lead the others in the expression of energy. 

When the physical energy is at work without magnet- 
ism, we see it presented in the form of ordinary toil. The woman 
goes about her household duties, her many steps and movements 
counting a vast expenditure during the day; the man may walk, 
run, jump, lift, strike, or engage in the various details that con- 
stitute labor; yet there is no magnetism, perhaps. The mind is 
needed, but it is secondary to the muscles. The nerves guide the 
action, but very soon they are automatic in what they do. The 
mind learns its lessons, and quickly teaches them to the muscles; 
then the strain is principally upon the latter. A man who has 
never used a saw or plane will not be able to accomplish anything 
at first; but after the mental part has been acquired, the muscles 
become skilful with experience, and they then predominate. 

We have thus far dealt with this principle as apart from 
the consideration of the use of the will in muscular effort. Our 
chief purpose has been to show that there is such a condition as the 
supremacy of one system over the others; that, although the facul- 
ties are inseparable from mind, nerve and muscle, there may be 
such a thing; one leading another in the expression of magnetic 
or other energy. Nearly all such expression is devoid of mag- 
netism, for the reason that it is directed by the latent will. 



$ 493 | 

The latent will cannot vibrate the ether-sea. 

This is the 493d Ralston Principle. In an almost informal 
manner we have referred to the two wills, without so much as stat- 
ing them. This was done to leave them for the present discussion 
of their nature. There are two wills, the latent and the active. 
Each has its share in every physical, nervous and mental energy; 
for which reason it might be stated that there were six wills: The 
latent physical, the active physical, the latent nervous, the active 
nervous, the latent mental and the active "mental; but these divi- 
sions are of no use. They might serve to fill out a text-book for 
some college. 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTROL. 371 

The latent will has continued possession of all our 
faculties for the greater pari of the time; and few persona are aware 
of the duties that arc relegated to it. This will performs many 
things that we are not aware of. Common habit is one of the 
familiar illustrations of latent will. Thus a person whistles at first 
by an exercise of his active will; again by the same direction, but at 
length ho finds himself whistling unconsciously. Drum with the 
ringers on the table five minutes daily for two weeks, and at the 
end of that time you will find yourself drumming by habit, by an 
exercise of the latent will. Anything that we do repeatedly in the 
same way soon comes to be done mechanically. Many persons sing 
in this w r ay, for the temptation to do so is very great. It would 
seem quite improbable that a speaker would employ so listless a 
method, yet nine out of ten of our public speakers lapse into this 
habit. Whoever will carefully analyze himself will soon come to 
appreciate the difference between the latent and the active will in 
every kind of utterance. In all manner of conversation this de- 
stroying agency is present. The thoughts come to the mind, the 
words to the tongue, the two connect, and so pass out on their 
empty mission. It is well enough for the commonplace things of 
life to be performed by the latent will; the acts of eating, dressing, 
walking, and other things; but if we wish to control others we 
should train the will always to be active when in the association 
of others. 

The vast net- work of atomic rays, when considered as 
a whole, should be referred to as the universal ether. Only the 
-active will is capable of vibrating this ether; the latent will has no 
•effect w r hatever upon it. A few propositions in explanation of this 
principle will be given. They should be carefully thought over 
and understood. Any obscurity in the mind of the pupil as to their 
meaning should be cleared away as soon as possible. 

1. The ether-sea connects the nervous system of one person 
with the nervous system of another. 

2. The nervous svstem is the seat of the emotional nature, or 
the passions. 

3. The emotional nature moves, charms, fascinates another 
when magnetic, and may irritate when unmagnetic. 

4. The mental nature convinces; the physical overpowers. 

5. The active will may direct any one or all of these three 
natures. 



372 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

6. The latent will cannot affect the ether-sea as an agent of 
the emotional nature. 

In the magnetic control of others the operation of the will 
simply commands the accumulated magnetism of the body to 
vibrate the ether-sea according to its dictates. 

This command could not be obeyed, if the accumulated 
magnetism were not present to obey it. Therefore the magnetism 
must first be accumulated. The will consists of internal energy, 
which a person within reach of } r our voice, touch or eye, if he has 
greater magnetism accumulated than you have, will charm, attract, 
and use to overpower you when he employs his active will. If he 
has less magnetism accumulated, he cannot help but yield to your 
influences when you choose to employ your active will. It is im- 
material whose will may be the stronger, as the will without the 
agent can never reach the emotional or yielding portion of another. 
Two persons possessing an equal amount of magnetic force will be 
congenial to each other. When considered in this way, the will 
seems to be separated from the energy which we call magnetism; 
in other pages we have treated the two as constituting a united 
force, which is more accurate, although analysis separates them as 
we are now doing. We might liken the matter to chaiioteers who 
are equally determined to win, but who possess horses of unequal 
merit; neither can go faster than the horses are capable of travel- 
ing. So the mil cannot execute its purpose apart from the mag- 
netic energy. 

1 494-1 

The active will is a conscious determination to ac- 
complish a fixed purpose. 

This is the 49-±th Ealston Principle. It is not possible to sep- 
arate will from magnetism. It is an old saying that the man of the 
strongest will is generally the man who gets the advantage over 
another. This is not true; nor is it true that in the magnetic con- 
trol over others one will is any better than another. To be sure, 
one may be stronger than another, but it has no advantage from 
so being. The amount of accumulated magnetism on hand quickly 
settles the question of supremacy, if the active will is used and it 
means what it says. 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTROL 373 

Many a man of a strong will has ended bis life on the 
gallows. Obstinacy, a bull-dog disposition, and all kinds of self- 
will are found in this class of natures. Personal magnetism never 
requires the aid of strength, never appears obstinate, and wins, in- 
stead of compelling. A strong-willed man on a jury will "hang" 
it, or prevent an agreement. A magnetic man will win over the 
other eleven. The former goes out of the jury room hated and 
suspected; the latter is considered a man who saw the right side 
of the case before any of his eleven fellow jurymen had carefully 
sifted the testimony in their efforts to arrive at the evidence. To 
put into daily use the accumulated magnetism of the body it is 
necessary to form a habit of connecting the active will with this 
wonderful influence; and for such purpose the exercises which are 
given in subsequent pages of this realm will prove beneficial. 

Having seen that the will is both active and latent, we 
will now revert to the principle previously stated, which says that 
the physical energy throws the white fire of force. By this is 
meant that the muscular faculties, when they predominate, are 
capable of accomplishing in a physical way the purpose set by the 
body. Eemember that the mental faculties are not withdrawn; 
that the nervous system still has its functions to perform; but that 
the muscular energy is leading the others. To this should be 
coupled the active will and magnetism, the latter being supposed 
to be already accumulated. 

Many illustrations of such combined power may be 
found in the animal kingdom; not so frequently with man as with 
the brute species. When the tiger springs toward his prey there 
is but small likelihood of his missing it. Having measured the 
distance, and knowing his own ability from previous use of the 
muscles in play, he needs only to catch the victim unawares. The 
force of the plunge and the terrific energy of his presence suffice 
to overwhelm the will of the animal to be caught. Under such a 
spell the cat holds the mouse enthralled; it stands less chance of 
escaping when the eyes of its tyrant are upon it, and many a time 
it seems as if it were fixed on the floor, una Mo to move. 

Human beings exhibit at times this exuberance or ex- 
cess of energy, and it counts to good purpose under many circum- 
stances. The man who ran twice as fast as lie ever ran before, to 
save his child from a train, gave an example of the force of which 
we speak. In contests, the same physical will often determines the 



374 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

victory; something stronger than the muscles helps out. Bed- 
ridden persons have shown the same intensity of force, and sickly 
women have resisted the combined power of several men who 
sought to control them. A mother, who sees her child in danger, 
will get an almost superhuman strength, which is really a volume 
of reserve magnetism which is soon exhausted, leaving her in col- 
lapse; a condition that should never occur in the use of this power. 
We might cite case after case of the white fire of force, 
and yet distinguish it from brute strength without taking it from 
the physical class; as in the work of gifted pianists, artists with the 
brush, sculptors, and others, whose muscular skill is charged with 
magnetic valor. The difference between physical energy and mag- 
netism is seen in the use of the violin. One player is capable of 
making a loud noise by the employment of his muscular energy: 
another player, a virtuoso, will extract from the same instrument 
the most thrilling sounds, and charm even the untrained ear. So 
in the speaking or singing voice, there is an immense chasm be- 
tween mere loudness and feeling; but here the nerves have play, 
which is not true in instrumental music. 

495 I 

The mental energy throws the blue fire of thought. 

This is the 495th Ealston Principle. We now tread on ioftier 
ground, and come to some of the direct practice in this splendid 
art. Nothing can be more beneficial, and nothing more ennoblii 
than the work before us, when considered in connection with the 
principles involved. These laws are magnificent. They must not 
only be known, but should be absorbed into the character and very 
being of every individual; they should walk with us by day, and 
sleep in our hearts by night. In every age of the world's history 
some agency has been employed to uplift life: at one time it w 
mechanical; later on it became physical: now it is mental: and in 
the immediate future it must be magnetic, making use of the pre- 
ceding systems as its base. 

The true description of thought must include tfie pi. 
phorescence and electric energy that attend the production of it. 
Thought is a power. It is a collection of organized groups of intel- 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTROL 375 

ligence, each made up of lesser activities; and, wherever they are 
manifest, whether in the least or the greatest exhibitions of for< 
they show a dependence on electricity as a source, and on phos- 
phorescence as a means of expression. The latter is evidence of 
energy in use. It is the inherent energy of living or of beir 
Thought pulsated in the tiny cell long before it united with its 
fellows to produce any organism, even that of the microscopic 
bacterium, and its throbbing has gone on to the limit of the highest 
creation. 

When an attempt was made to describe the nature of a 
telephonic transmission, the most popular definition was that which 
compared it to the waves of a line of sound, commencing at the 
larynx in the throat, where the vibration is started; then carrying 
these waves in the air as merety pulsations of that body to the disc 
of the telephone', which is like the tympanum or drum of the ear; 
this film is so delicate that it vibrates with the air and to the same 
extent in force and in all characteristics; its vibrations, passing 
rapidly back and forth, interrupt the electrical current, and these 
interruptions reach the disc at the other end of the line, giving it 
the same pulsations that were imparted at the beginning. They 
lack power to move the mass of the general atmosphere; but the 
ear, when placed near the disc, is able to catch these vibrations 
and carry them along the nerve to the brain. The peculiar fact is 
that the brain is made a receptacle of the throbbings, which it 
turns into meaning and accepts as thought. So light also., which is 
a wave movement, is interpreted in the brain as ideas or thought. 

¥« & 

| 496 | 

The strength of the wave is determined by the in- 
tensity of the thought. 

This is the 496th Ralston Principle. The brain is not affected 
by every sound it hears, nor by every thought that comes its way. 
If it were, the result would be unpleasant. Thousands of sounds, 
from large to small, are thrown upon the ear every day. and they 
naturally vibrate the nerve within; but the brain knows nothing 
of them. Yon hear what is going on, it is true; but you have no 
consciousness of it, unless the sound is unusual, or it makes a de- 



376 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

maud upon your attention. The ticking of a clock will keep yon 
awake at night, if yon are not accustomed to hearing it by day. 
If, however, yon hear it always, you cannot even catch its sound by 
an effort, for the commonness of it has deadened your conscious- 
ness of its presence. So an instrument made to record all sound 
impressions that occurred from sunrise to sunset, gave evidence of 
an enormous number that affected it mechanically, while they 
were unable to reach the mind at all. 

The brain is so constituted that remarks roll off without 
attracting its attention, as criticism rolls off unsensitive natures. 
We listen, and yet do not catch the thought in the sound. This is 
experienced in the effort to follow the sermon of the ordinary 
preacher. He may shout for an hour in tones loud enough to be 
heard a mile away, yet few persons receive the ideas, for they listen 
without hearing. There have been many attempts to account for 
this double nature of the brain, as some have called it. "You are 
not listening to what I am saying," says an impatient person to 
another; and the other finds the last few words still vibrating on 
the nerve. He repeats them. "What did I say prior to that? 
What have I said during the last five minutes?" He did not know. 
The fact that the last idea can be caught on the yet vibrating nerve 
of hearing shows that the brain may go back a little way and ex- 
tract the idea out of the last uttered sounds. 

Where an unusual noise has been introduced in a 
locality, everybody notices it for a few days or weeks; then it is 
not heard at all in the brain, though it is really heard in the ear. 
A visitor is annoyed by it, and 3 r ou cannot even hear it by trying. 
This is also true of sounds not continuous, as the passing of street 
cars or railway trains, and even the screeching of locomotives. 
"How can your babies sleep when the whistles blow so loud and 
shrill?" asked a woman. "They are used to it," was the reply. 
City people in the country are annoyed for a while by the universal 
din of the night amid the generally profound silence; but very 
soon they are unable to hear the noises. 



" 'J^eath cloister' J boughs, each floral bell that sarin getb 
tAnct tolls its perfume on tie passing air, 
{Makes Sabbath in the fields, and ever ringetb." 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTROL 377 

Thought may be separated from voice. 

This is the 497th Ealston Principle. The more interest you 
feel in what you say, the more likely you are to reach the minds 
of others. Your voice may have no difficulty in reaching the ears 
of thousands as well as of one; hut to he heard is one thing, to be 
understood is another; and to have your thought received is still 
more. You are heard when your voice is loud enough to reach the 
person addressed; you are understood when you enunciate dis- 
tinctly; but your thoughts may not be received at all. This failure 
need not be ascribed, to the obscurity of the ideas, which might 
prevent a comprehension of them; it is the commonest of all 
failures. 

It is possible to read for an hour to a listener, expressing 
only the simplest thoughts, and yet not be able to reach the con- 
scious attention of the individual. In such a case the thought was 
not in the voice; the reader was not thinking of the ideas; or, allow- 
ing that he was, the listener was engaged in ruminations of a dif- 
ferent character or of things far away. "I heard every word that 
was said," remarked the person addressed, "but I was not paying 
attention; so I did not catch a single idea." How is it possible to 
hear what is said, and. not know what is said? That the sound 
lingers is well known from the fact that it can be picked up and 
carried into the mind and there interpreted. 

This shows that the thought is separable from the sound 
itself, and that a voice laden with ideas may fail to place them in 
the brain of another. Of courseSt is true that a dead sentence may 
be revived and interpreted, as where it is read by the eye, or heard 
by the ear, and revived just as it is about to pass into nothingness. 
In such manner the voice, spoken in the phonograph, is taken out 
at any time and read into the conscious brain. Such methods are 
of value next to nothing, and lack all life; they certainly serve no 
usefulness, except in the merest mechanical way. That which 
appeals to the eye goes directly to the brain; that which appeals 
to the ear may die in transit. We look at what interests us, and 
can concentrate our attention at will; but we are compelled to hear 
all the ten thousand sounds that fill the air in the course of the 



378 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

day, and nature is kind enough, to relieve the brain from the tax 
of knowing what they are or what ideas they represent. 

There are two sides to the separation of the thought 
from the voice. On one we see the inability of the hearer to give 
due attention; on the other we see the inability of the speaker to 
think in his voice. It is a common occurrence to find these two 
sides represented in a single conversation, more common among 
women than men; although both sexes are given to the habit. Two 
young ladies are talking together; one speaks a hundred words or 
so, and the other starts in at the first pause for breath, sajT-ng, 
"Yes/' or something as light, and going off at a t rapid rate on a 
theme in no way connected with the subject first introduced by 
her friend. They proceed in this manner until there is something 
of specific interest mentioned, when the listeners catch the idea. 
It is generally scandal or a love affair. That the one who speaks, 
when the subject is not of vital interest, is not thinking of what 
is said, may be known from the fact that there is no tensity of 
ideas, and the train of thought, when interpreted, is not resumed 
unless it has something of unusual moment to keep it alive. 

Similar to this .most useless way of employing so great 
a faculty as the voice, is the tiresome style of orators, especially 
those in the pulpit. A majority of preachers, who read their ser- 
mons, do not connect their thoughts with their voices; in fact, 
their minds are far away. An actor who spoke his lines with vigor 
of sound, but with his whole attention on an outside matter, was 
told by a friend and admirer that he produced only a muddle in 
the minds of the audience. "Your voice was excellent, loud, strong 
and clear; you spoke distinctly; your enunciation and modulation 
were as good as ever; but the force of your voice was offered evi- 
dently as a substitute for your magnetism. How do you account 
for it?" "I can easily explain the difference. Usually my mind is 
on what I am saying. I knovf the lines perfectly. I need not think 
of them to speak them. To-night I was brooding over a little 
trouble, and I am sure that I did not utter an idea of the play; I 
spoke the words only/' By his statement and that of his friend it 
seemed that magnetism is lacking when the thought is separated 
from the voice. 

No more vital question can arise than that which relates 
to the usefulness of oratory in the pulpit. In some churches the 
officials prefer that the sermons be read from carefully prepared 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTROL 379 

manuscript, thus securing belter st r uctur e of the sermon at the 

expense of native force and freedom If in the delivery. A 

certain bishop issued a similar order to bis ministers, and gave 

a reason for it that they came to the pulpil on Sundays witliom a 
full preparation; they depended upon their ability to say whal \ 
in their minds, regardless of whether there was anything tangible 
there or not. Tin's confession of the bishop was an admission th 
the clergy under him were either unable or unwilling to think out 
their sermons, to plan their structure in advance, to make outlii 
and notes, and to commit these to memory or to preserve them in 
a form, for easy reference. The true art of extempore speech 
quires as careful a preparation as if the address were to be writ! 
and read. The bishop said that the sermons had been growing 
more and more rambling, some of them containing injudicious and 
carelessly formulated statements, showing lack of preparation and 
study. 

When this disposition is analyzed it is found that a 
lazy person may speak better by having his manuscript before him, 
already written; that a lazier person will write down a few not 
and. depend on the luck of finding ideas and language at the time 
of speaking, and that the laziest of all will come before his audience 
without advance thought, notes, outlines or anything else. Despite 
cleverness, natural ability, eloquence and everything that experi- 
ence might add to his chances of success, he is bound to be a 
failure. Such a habit is injurious to the personal power of the 
speaker, as time soon proves. Not to be confounded with such 
slack methods, is the fullness of thought that comes when a theme 
has taken complete possession of the person; when he is so thor- 
oughly charged with his subject that a mind brimful of ideas is 
but waiting for the occasion to give them utterance: for the beet of 
all means of getting ready is to live in the atmosphere of the sub- 
ject until identities are lost by merging together. Such instaiu 
are very rare, however. 

The principle is a vital one, and has its place in every 
magnetic life, though in lesser degree. What is called an all-round 
knowledge is too diffusive to be effective. Only a gaseous matter 
diffuses itself widely. A general education is of the highest import- 
ance; but he who would throw the blue fire inusi be full of ! 
subject. Xo person can be diffusibly magnetic. This does nor 
imply that he is to be of one idea, but merely of on^ at a time. 



380 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

He may wield the power all day long, controlling one individual 
after another, yet largely in the line of his mental operations. If 
he proposes to throw the red fire, the rule changes, and there he 
may hold sway over a greater number; for feeling, and not thought, 
is attempting the mastery of those who come within the domain of 
his influence. 

1 m % 

^%^%%%%%%%%%%%%%%*<>%% tx 

The nervous energy throws the red fire of passion. 

This is the 498th Ealston Principle. In speaking of this law 
we shall revert to others that have been but partly discussed; for 
this will save repetition where several principles relate to different 
lines of control. ' By nervous energy we refer to the power, and 
not to the weakness, of the nervous s} r stem. A person is spoken of 
as "nervous," implying that he lacks control of that part of himself, 
or is fidgety, embarrassed easily, or cannot endure distracting 
things; he jumps a little when a book falls to the floor, or shrinks 
at the screeching of an engine; a small boy with a drum annoys 
him; the young lady who practices the five-finger exercises on the 
piano over his head distresses him three hours every night, and so 
on. Or there may be a frail woman, like the womanish man, who is 
simply nervous regardless of outside occurrences; who broods over 
trouble, and magnifies it till the perspiration runs in cold sweat 
down the spinal column; while another type is all unrest within, 
having the constant desire to fly out of the skin, as a little gentle- 
man once put it. 

True nervous energy is an accumulation of power; 
not the erratic action of weakness. It differs from physical and 
mental vitality in that it represents the passions; and these are here 
intended to include the moods and emotions as well. It is here 
that true magnetism shows itself. An explanation of what is meant 
by an emotion should be made at this place. The popular idea 
clothes it in tears or sadness; but there is no more sorrow in the 
emotion of laughter than there is in the emotion of malice. What- 
ever proceeds from the nervous system and is colored by its interest 
is an emotion. We cannot, separate the muscles from the nerves 
when the physical expression predominates, but we can make the 
physical a representation of mere force, and so subdue the mind 



* I ' U* *-» ■»!- s-\^*-v* r* i-k w\ /-» i /I Art ri 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTROL. 381 

altogether as well as conceal all appearance of nervous inter< 
yet it is perfectly true that these three departments of our life are 
always associated. We all know what is meant by tin: predominance 
of muscles over mind and over feeling; we all know what is meant 
by the predominance of mind over the physical and nervous; and 
it remains to be seen what is meant by the sway of the feeli] 
over the mind and muscles. 

A person who is very much in earnest in saying a 
thing, creates a far different impression from one who shows merely 
a mental interest or a physical interest. The very same ideas, 
uttered from the fire of force, appear to have a different weight, a 
different meaning from that which is imparted by the fire of the 
mind or the fire of the passions. "Let him beware who offers insult 
to our flag," shouts the ranting orator in a volume of force 'that 
might be grand if it came from a setting of quietude; but, as most 
speakers yell from beginning to finish, the noise they make with 
their mouths is always deplorable. "Let him beware who offers 
insult to our flag," says the argumentative speaker, and his glides 
and modulation, coupled with the peculiar emphasis which the 
mind alone can give, tell that his thought holds sway. Such a i 

method cannot rant. It may hold true to the line of mental mag- 
netism; it may unite force with thought; but as long as the latter 
predominates there can be no mere shouting. At such a time, and 
in such an expression the union of the two is most powerful. It 
needs only the third to make it irresistible. 

The use of the red fire changes the effect, and the utter- 
ance is no more what it seemed at first. "Let him beware who 
offers insult to our flag." The force may not be lacking, but the 
voice is mellowed by the richness of magnetism; the nerves ore on 
fire, the eyes aglow, the body is tense, the tones ring out with a 
solidity of strength that is manifest even in the quieter efforts; 
and all present can see a transformation in the man. The feat u 
are not the same. There is no dragging down of the head and 
chest in obedience to the law of gavity, but the body -lands 
erect, firm, impressive. All these evidences of energy can be easily 
traced to the nervous system. What are its offices? 

Whenever the interest is expressed by the nerves, it 
may properly be referred to as feeling. To say that a person speaks 
feelingly need not imply the use of tears or the drooping of the 
features. Joy is the outcome of feeling. It is not true that mag- 



382 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

netism is created by such use; but it is the fact that it employs this 
method as the best channel of delivering itself. The word passion 
is a stronger term than feeling, as it presents more the idea of in- 
tensity; for which reason we refer to the leading emotions as pas- 
sions. Of these there are the bright and the dark. As night and 
day make the completed diem; as summer and winter for the year; 
so the good passions are rounded out by the bad. 

As the emotions and passions spring from the moods 
and feelings of the nervous system, and as words come out of the 
mind, it is not easy to express the former by the agents of the 
latter. We all know that love is the reigning queen of this depart- 
ment; yet there are so many kinds of love that it is necessary here 
to adopt a technical definition. In the dictionary, and by popular 
use, ' a person may love husband or wife, father, mother, sister, 
brother, son, daughter, fruit, flowers, birds, cats, dogs, oysters, 
clams, dry weather, lettuce, cheese, the poor, the sinner, and a 
heterogeneous mass of everything and anything, all without sense 
in the use of the word, except in a few instances. "I love steamed 
oysters, but I hate fried oysters," is a common mode of saying two 
things, neither of which is really meant. Hate, and even dislike, 
are affirmative attitudes; to dislike a thing is to have a positive 
reason for so doing; while most persons merely do not like certain 
things, yet cannot properly say they dislike them. 

The distinction between the love that may be felt for a 
person and for an inanimate object is as wide as affection may go. 
The woman who loves her pet bulldog has nothing more than an 
affection for the beast; and, because it has life and responsive in- 
telligence, she would mourn its absence or its death. A man may 
love his companions in the brute world, his dog or his horse: lie 
may love his gun, a tree, or a brook, if pleasant associations are 
called up by them; he may love his library, his favorite volume, a 
portrait; but all these emotions are properly classed under the term 
affection. The holiest of all earthly loves ought to be that which 
the child bears for the mother; perhaps it is the holiest: but the 
most enduring, the most faithful, the deepest and best, is that of 
the parent for the child. It cannot reason, for it does not proceed 
from the brain. It is blind to faults in a remarkable degree, for it 
sees beyond the source of all faults. 

Yet while it is proper to refer to parental and filial 
endearment as love, we are compelled to put them with others 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTROL. 383 

undea the term affection; and, in our limited technical use, we 
include nothing in the word Jove except that strange influence 
which brings two hearts together under the command of the mar- 
riage passion. Of this we will speak later, as it is the mainspring 
of life. Opposed to this love is the dark passion of hate. Th< 
are the two poles of all animal existence, from the least to the 
greatest. Stepping aside from them, we come to the second group. 
in which hope is the bright star and grief its shadow. It is 
because of hope that we all continue to live, and because of grief 
that we seek to hope again. Shadows tempt us to the light. 

It would seem as if these passions included all others; 
but there are classes yet to be considered. Pride is a bright, a 
lofty and an exalting passion, taking us where hope points the way. 
Its opposite is shame. Then comes resolution, the fourth of the 
bright class, with fear as its other pole. Excitement, the flame of 
labor, whereby the impulse of energy stamps genuineness on love, 
on hope, on pride and on resolution, is a bright passion. Its tech- 
nical meaning is not the same as that popularly given it. Depres- 
sion is its dark opposite. Here are the ten passions; five of them 
are bright, five are dark; and they include in their subdivisions 
and associate emotions all the colorable feelings of which the won- 
derful nervous system is capable of experiencing or expressing. In 
fact, most persons really experience the hundred emotions, while 
they cannot express more than a half dozen of them. 

So important and so satisfying is it to an ambitious 
soul to develop the ability to recognize and to give true color to 
these variable moods, that we strongly urge every reader of this 
volume, every true student of life, to spend six months in a school 
of expression, taking the whole art very thoroughly, and devoting 
the time solely to the professional course. By this is meant a bal- 
anced study and training, wherein every detail of objective expres- 
sion is taken at the same time with every detail of subjective ex- 
pression. Besides making the man or woman more useful in life 
to others, and besides finding it the very best means of acquiring 
culture that the world affords to-day if truly taught, it is the best 
aid to the study of magnetism. Many persons take the training in 
expression for these purposes only. 

We will look at a few of these emotions, such as arise 
from the ten great passions or arc associated with them, for the 
'purpose of obtaining a better understanding of what is meant by 



384 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

the predominance of the nervous system in the expression of mag- 
netism. In the family of emotions connected with love we find 
kindred feelings, the closest of which is affection. This differs as 
the objects vary on which it is lavished. Then such a mood as 
respect is well understood as belonging to the steps that lead up to 
affection and love, some claiming that it is a necessary basis for 
both these tributes, although such claim is not always sustained in 
the facts. Fancy is distantly akin to the general idea, and goodness 
also has association; but the attempt to show that all these emo- 
tions are interrelated would be profitless. They may exist in an 
harmonious group without actual kinship. 

We can see why mirth, joy, flattery and ecstasy are 
rightly placed in the group of love, as harmonious with it: and 
thrill or animal passion of marital love may, under its technical 
name, stand in the same class also. The great passion that holds 
the pole opposite that of love is hate. In a group harmonizing with 
it are such emotions as those of defiance, disdain, contempt, scorn, 
jealousy, anger, treachery, revenge and rage; the last being the 
climacteric motion of hate. Passing to the bright passion of hope, 
called a passion simply because it is the central life of its group, 
and not because it makes its owner passionate, we see the harmonic 
colors of peace, mercy, reverence, ambition which inspires ho] 
prayer, longing, wishing, trust and faith. The opposite pole of 
this passion is grief, and it is grouped with disappointment, regr 
sadness, sympathy, melanchoty, disconsolation, desolation, despair 
and frenzy. Each is different; each comes from a fixed color; and it 
is in the predominance of the nervous system that each is possible. 

Another of the bright passions is pride. In its group 
are sacrifice, dignity, triumph, nobility, patriotism, eloquen 
solemnhVy, sublimity and grandeur. The opposite of pride is shame, 
with its harmonic group of anxiety, petulance, humility, repent- 
ance, guilt, murder, remorse, agony and desperation. The fourth 
of the bright passions is resolution, and its colors include resent- 
ment, warning, threatening, challenge, courage, recklessness, slav- 
ing and intensity. These are opposed by the passion of fear, the 
group of which includes the emotions of superstition, stealth, ap- 
prehension, alarm, fright, awe, terror, horror and frantic fear. The 
last of the bright passions is excitement; in its group are doubt. 
wonder, perturbation, surprise, bewilderment, amazement, embar- 
rassment, insanity and madness. These are bright in their aetiv- 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTROL 385 

ities only, being a series of unsettled conditions through which the 
better is struggling with the worse, and thus feeding the flame of 
existence. All fire and all light is the result of chaotic excitement 
of particles. We would think that this passion had no opposite 
pole; but an examination of life shows that depression is the exact 
opponent of excitement and is always its reaction. With it, in an 
harmonious group, are the decreptitude of age, the willingness of 
resignation, the falling to sleep, dizziness, fainting, the physical 
color of pain affecting the nerves, the cataleptic state called trance, 
the purpose of parting with life as in suicide, and the fading away 
of the world in death. Here, in these one hundred emotions, are all 
the moods of human life, running the awful gamut from the sweet 
temper of peace to the black mystery of death. 

If you will look into these many expressions of the 
nervous system, you will find all of them free from the control of 
either mind or body. They are peculiarly the progeny of the feel- 
ings, and come 'out of a different department of the body from 
thought or force. They are powerful enough to control the 
physical life, for by their influence the latter may pine away into 
sickness and emaciation. They are rarely ever subdued by the 
mind. The man in love will hardly think of other things; he cer- 
tainly could not reason himself out of it if he were sincere. Facts 
may awaken one out of a thin dream. Even the emotion of good- 
ness is free from all mental calculation when it is abiding and 
honest; for if a person is good because the judgment decrees that it 
is the best policy, the goodness may fly away when it is no longer 
politic to preserve it. 

The action of a passion or an emotion may spring out of 
the mind; but then it is a piece of acting, creating a delusion. This 
is the method of the hypocrite, the dissembler and the actor. Some 
feign goodness, respect, affection, love, joy, reverence, trust, faith, 
regret, sadness, sympathy, despair, sacrifice, dignity, nobility, 
patriotism, anxiety, humility, repentance, warning, threatening, 
courage, surprise, insanity, sleep, fainting, and no doubt many 
others; while the professional actor is in duty bound to assume all 
moods as the occasion demands. So long as the assumption is 
mental, it must lack naturalness; but it is true that magnetism 
enables a person to step from the pretence to the fact. Herein 
arises the question as to how much the lack of honesty is liable to 
defeat the power of magnetism. 



386 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

It is true that dishonesty is unmagnetic. This cannot 
be denied. The lawyer who utters an untruth to the jury may 
shout it, declaim it, pound it at them; yet he cannot charge the as- 
sertion with any true fire. It is false, and as such is a discord. 
He must believe in himself and in the fact before he can hurl the 
bolt of fire that shall burn its way into other men's hearts. He 
may step into the role of the actor, and thereby win himself over to 
the conviction. The character of the drama is a reality in the 
realm of fancy; it lives, moves, acts, talks, feels, and takes on 
humanity; and this the actor must realize. He first studies the 
part as something separate; but little by little he enters into it, 
until it has no separate existence: the two are one, and what the 
character feels, the actor also feels in full realitv. This fact does 
not involve the old discussion as to whether he can act without 
feeling the effect of his powers. Some claim that the emotion may 
sway the audience and not the actor; others, that it must sway 
both alike. Either of these propositions may be separated from the 
one we have made; our claim being that no actor can express mag- 
netism until the character he portrays is fully absorbed and made 
& part of himself, so that what the character feels the actor feels. 
It seems to be a fact that the stronger he is, the less he, as an 
individual, is affected by the portrayal; that the more smoothly and 
perfectly he is blended into the character, the less wear and tear 
is produced on his own system; while, on the contrary, the weaker 
lie is, the more he is upset by his portrayal, and the more credit he 
obtains for his efforts. 

From these associate considerations it would seem 
impossible to discuss the present principle without becoming in- 
volved in other matters. It is important, however, to come back 
to the question of the assumption of an emotion that is not in 
reality honest. The lawyer may know that his client is guilty. 
Eufus Choate, who won all, or practically all of his jury cases, was 
in the habit of compelling his clients to tell him the truth, so that 
he might be better prepared to meet the dangers that would arise 
at the trial. Choate was the most magnetic man at the bar, ex- 
cepting Daniel Webster. When they met as opposing advocates in 
a case, it was decided on its merits; otherwise is was decided by the 
magnetism of the counsel. . In the preparation of a trial, Choate 
gave it much thought; he idealized his guilty client into one who 
was innocent; and, throwing away the bad for the unreal, he made 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTROL 387 

the former cease to exist, and the latter he changed into the real. 
He was the consummate actor, who could compel himself to be- 
lieve with a fervid sincerity in the character which he assumed. 
On the same principle, the minister who wins the public by his 
magnetism, yet who is a consummate rascal, possesses the power of 
stepping into a character not himself. He becomes the advocate 
of a goodness that is not his own, but dwells only in the life of 
the fancy. 

1 *>9 I 

Magnetism creates a double life. 

This is the 499th Ealston Principle. It would seem at first 
as if the tendency of this power in a duplex direction would be 
pronounced a most serious fault, and relegate it to the ranks of 
evil agencies. But the fact is just the other way. The power to 
step out of one's self into another being, that is, into an ideal 
assumption, is always applied to a self that is bad. The ideal is 
always better than the real. We have in mind a clergyman who 
had a wonderful fund of magnetic energy, who preached effective 
sermons, who won many converts, most of whom remained true to 
their profession of faith even after they knew this preacher was 
not honest; yet, in spite of these merits, this man was a gambler 
and a debauchee. 

In analyzing his history as compared with his character, 
we find that he had always been going wrong from earliest boyhood, 
having set fire to a barn on one occasion, stolen tools on another, 
and committed numerous thefts. At the age of eighteen he ruined 
a girl of fifteen; moved to another State, where he repeated the 
offence with a girl of fourteen, and married her out of respect for 
her father's demands, on whom he threw himself for support. He 
was not lazy. The father-in-law actually stimulated him to think 
better of his conduct, but saw that his whole character was satu- 
rated with evil. Then came to the young man, as has come to 
others of the same mold, the desire to enter the ministry. He 
thought it over for a year or two, but an unexpected affair attracted 
him to the ocean, which he followed for several years, leaving his 
child-wife with her parents. While at sea, he arose out of his 
lower self through the pretence that he was an evangelist preacher. 



388 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

This statement was made to the captain who said 
that he seemed more like a runaway criminal. Then came the 
thorough duplicity of his nature. He practiced continually the art 
of coolly preserving his nervous forces, and found himself mag- 
netic. He conceived the idea of becoming a great preacher in a far- 
away land, under an assumed name. More and more he calmed his 
wild energies, and gained self-control as well as power over others. 
He assumed the attitude and carriage of a preacher, spoke to the 
men in groups on Sundays, and actually impressed them with his 
sincerity. Knowing that his earlier conduct was a contradiction of 
this pretence, he was shrewd enough to account for it by remarks 
of the following tenor: "Boys, I am not the good man I wish to 
be. I was born in sin; as a boy I lived in sin, and now, as a young 
man, I feel that there is a devil in me seeking to drag me down. If 
I let this evil propensity control me, you know what I would be 
like. I believe that every man has two angels in his life; he can 
follow one or the other. I want to follow my better angel; but, 
boys, I cannot at all times. The fight is harder for me than for 
you, because your evil nature is not so bad as mine/' He uninten- 
tionally hit the truth. 

So impressive and convincing was this confession that 
he received the credit of being sincere. The captain believed in 
him; and, at ports where they could find books, the two made pur- 
chases, in order to assist in the young man's sea education. In 
writing to a friend, the captain declared that this "preacher ' had 
made his crew into new men, and that he never had such good 
government on board ship. Later on he gave him a letter of intro- 
duction to a friend in Australia, vouching for his honesty of pur- 
pose and his ability to influence his hearers. As the pretender 
afterwards confessed, this was the great thing he most desired: it 
opened to him his future. All he now needed was faithful work, 
study, and a lofty ambition to reach the topmost round of the 
ladder of fame. He failed because he lacked breadth of mind, and 
was not honest. 

But the point of importance is the temporary genuine- 
ness that his magnetism gave him. In that far-away land he en- 
tirely subdued, or covered over, his evil side: then, finding it im- 
possible to get out of a rut that prevented his further rise, he came 
back to America after being ordained. He was now unknown, and 
his name was new, for he entered the service of the ship under an 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTROL 389 

assumed name, and this was adopted ever after. In Australia he 
gave evidence of sincerity in his ministry; so much BO, that he was 
loaded with credentials from men of influence; and, as a test of the 
force of these, it soon hecame known that Ik; was missed there. 
A larger salary was promised him to return, lie was restless, and 
sought greater opportunities for rising, hence came to America,, 
where he hoped to realize his ambition. lie argued that he might 
evade meeting the persons whom he had wronged, if he kept out 
of their communities, and that when his fame and usefulness were 
very great, his youthful errors w r ould be overlooked. This was 
true, for a man of force might master the indiscretions that stand 
out against him in a remote past. But what about that chaldron 
of evil that was seething within him? 

He was still a man of pretence relying on the duplex 
nature which magnetism gave him; therefore he was the creature 
of an influence that must fade when the influences waned. He 
was unsafe. Soon the magnetism was neglected. He ceased to try 
to maintain it. He believed that the ability he had shown was due 
to an inherent power born in his evil self; and he fell back upon it. 
Then he was ruined, exposed, arrested and sent to the penitentiary, 
all without having his name and former identity discovered. In 
speaking of his career and fall, he said: "I was a different man 
when preaching. The power within me drove out my evil self, 
and made me another being. So much was I impressed by this fart 
that I came to believe that some good man had come to me. a 
was doing the talking. It was not till I got home from the 
vices that I realized how bad I was, and what a pretender I had 
been." It is on the same principle that the actor is enabled to step 
into a character far different from himself; yet he can do so only 
through magnetism. 

In the case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde the evil char- 
acter is hypnotic; and this must not be confounded with the duplex 
life to which our principle refers. A man may at times step into 
an evil role, through the process of hypnotic change; and this 
change may be superinduced by an idea, a fear, an influence or a 
mechanical agency; all of which we have fully considered in a pre- 
ceding realm of this volume. So much of duplicity in the life of 
Jekyll and Hyde as is unreal, or is dependent upon the notions of 
alchemy, we have nothing to do with, as that phase of the case 
must be read with Jules Verne's trip to the moon. The world has 



390 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

many really double lives. When the normal is of average purity, 
and a drop ensues, or the duality is normal good and assumed bad, 
the assumption is not due to magnetism, but to hypnotism. Mag- 
netism never lowers a human being. 

The distinction is one of importance, and is worth 
looking at. We see a good life suddenly fallen. It has been in 
reality a good life: not a pretence, nor a piece of acting. It is 
changed to one of a duplex nature. The most common case is that 
of a business man, living at some distance from his place of busi- 
ness. A woman throws over him an hypnotic influence. He may 
have met her very probably, or she may be in his employ, possibly 
his typewriter or stenographer. He becomes infatuated by the 
hypnotic idea, which may emanate from her or may arise from his 
own thinking of her, either of which would lead him away from 
his good judgment. Now begins the double life; the normal is a 
pretence: the abnormal is evil and real. He will soon need mag- 
netism, or the pretence must fall. 

On the other hand, a man who is of a diabolical char- 
acter often wins a fair reputation by the aid of magnetism. This 
is because the pretence does not cause a departure toward the bad, 
but toward the good. Magnetism in duplex lives never aids the 
real, but always the pretended. The real is never good, the pre- 
tended is always an assumption of good; therefore magnetism in 
duplex lives is the ally of the better side. Remember this, and 
do not blame the power. Its drift is always heavenward. Xot a 
case can be cited where magnetism has even allured a human being 
downward; and, on the other hand, never a case has been known 
where hypnotism has allured a man upward. We refer to the 
semi-hypnotic state which does not pass into sleep or into stupor of 
any kind, but merely dazes the faculties or suspends the judgment. 
The cure for this is found only in the study of magnetism, which, 
if anything can, will destroy the meaner self. 



"<jlh / were we judged by what we might have been, 

*And not by what we are— too apt to fall! 
(Mv httle child— be sleeps and smiles between 

These thoughts and me. In heaven we skill know j//." 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTROL 391 



r § 500 | 

Intermittent stress is the carrying power of feeling. 

This is the 500th Ralston Principle We seemingly step aside 
to examine a law that is generally unknown in the study of mag- 
netism. It is not entirely new. having been personally taught for 
many years as one of the secret exercises in the most potent form 
of this art; but this is the first time it has been published. We 
must take the matter up as from the beginning; and, even if you 
are familiar with it, others may not be; so that a full explanation 
is essential. 

By stress is meant the use of the voice under some 
impulse of feeling. In conversation that is uninteresting there is 
no stress in the voice; it is then called a dead voice in the art of 
expression. But when the converser wakes up to some feeling he 
cannot help the use of stress, of which there are eight. Jf the 
sentiment of beauty predominates, the voice will instinctively fill 
out the syllables, giving them a. fullness suggestive of richness.^ 
This refers to flexible voices coupled with minds that have words at 
command ready and fit to use. It does not embrace such cases as 
are met in the commonplaces of life, where there are no tools of the 
mind in the voice. Wealth cannot give these tools, nor can it im- 
part stress to voice. The daughter of the millionaire, who had seen 
the vale of Chamouni in the Alps, could say no more than that "It 
was perfectly splendid, you know; the peaks were awfully high, 
you see; and I just thought how fearfully nice it was." Her voice 
could have no stress. The style of delivery must have been as 
broken and jerky as the chop sea of a bay. 

It seems then that there must be at least the ordinary 
means of expressing one's feelings, before stress comes in. It is 
easily cultivated, as are most all the tools of expression. He who 
would say grand things must have words to picture the ideas; but 
they fall short of their effectiveness if not accompanied by stress 
suitable to the stature of the mind. So these variations of the voice 
go on through the eight elementary stresses, and then their endless 
variations come into play, giving new faculties to the mind and 
body. It is on this, as on other accounts, that the full art of ex- 
pression should be specifically studied in a six months' course in 
some reliable institution. 






392 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

But the only stress that concerns us at this place is the 
intermittent; and this we will proceed to explain and to illustrate. 
Feeling of every kind affects the diaphragm, that large muscle that 
constitutes the floor of the lungs. Under great excitement this 
organ, for it is so termed, is violently agitated. In weeping, it not 
only causes the whole chest-frame to heave, hut gives the voice its 
tremhling sound, from the jumps to the finer runs that indicate 
suffering. An imitation of weeping is the quickest means of ascer- 
taining what is meant. This is a strong intermittent action, too 
strong to he called stress. It is rather distress. 

Let the mood be changed to the other side of our nature, 
and the agitation of the diaphragm will give vent to laughter. The 
great muscle rises and falls with considerable force, while its effect 
upon the lungs is to cause the chest to rise and fall also, and the 
voice has a rhythmical sound, due to the same vibration. We men- 
tion these extremes because they are easily analyzed. In listening 
to an unmagnetic voice, we notice its deadness, and particularly its 
lack of stress. Again, in listening to a voice that is known to be 
magnetic, we perceive a sensation as of vibrations too fine to be 
caught by ordinary observation. Anatomy tells us that the dia- 
phragm is active in proportion to the strength of the feeling which 
takes possession of the body. From this fact there is 
nor has it any exception. 

Any general reading upon the subject will confirm the 
statement that the diaphragm expresses the degree of feeling that 
controls the body. A very important event will cause it to vibrate, 
not violently, but in a fine though intense action that is powerful 
even in its minuteness. The voice shows a strong degree of the 
intermittent stress, but not so much as appears in the tremulo, 
which is an affectation of some singers. There is really considerable 
agitation at the diaphragm. Its fine but decided movement reach - 
the abdomen, and vibrates its contents so that, in a majority of 
cases, it results in looseness of the bowels. This tendency to diar- 
rhcea is chargeable solely to the churning of the intestines by the 
motion of the diaphragm. This experience has been frequently 
noted by nearly everybody; and some persons have accounted at 
last for their proneness to this disorder when excited. 

The magnetic person is tense from center to surface of 
the body. A tense muscle is vibrant. It does not shake or trembl . 
but it vibrates in a measure so small as to be noted onlv in effect. 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTROL 393 

Such a condition involves the whole body. The diaphragm is the 
first part to catch the sensation; it takes it up, and sends it to all 
extremes. The voice is supported on the diaphragm, for it is a 
solid air column in effect, having its base on this great muscle, and 
changing from air to tone as it passes the edges of the vocal cords, 
the glottis lips of the larynx. The difference between the voice and 
stress is a plain one. Both are vibrations; but those of the larynx 
are exceedingly small, fine and close together, the slowest of them 
in the ordinary pitch reaching an enormous number per minute; 
while the vibrations of the diaphragm are very much less. In 
weeping they do not average one to a second; in laughter, not more 
than five; in the tremulo, not more than five to eight, and in the 
fine stress, when magnetic, not more than ten or twenty. 

The learning of the intermittent stress, so as to adopt 
it readily, is always an excitement to the diaphragm and through i 
that organ to the whole nervous system; just as the quick action of 
the tense eye will excite the magnetism of the brain, and invigorate* 
both the eye and the brain. Some exercises are like a match ap- 
plied to a magazine of gunpowder, needing but little to produce 
much. The artificial use of the intermittent stress is of value be- 
cause it endiches the voice to a very high order of beauty, and it ' 
sooner connects the tones with magnetism than if it were forced to 
come naturally. It quickly becomes natural in use when habitual. 

The right degree of the intermittent stress should be 
acquired by practice. This is brought about by reading any line 
in a tremulous tone until the nerves, by their vibration, bring tears < 
to the eyes. This is, of course, artificial. It may require days or 
weeks to vibrate the tone until the tears start. If you cannot start" 
the vibrations, then adopt the following drill exercise: Fill the 
lungs full of air; open the mouth about half an inch at the lips; 
let the air out slowly and steadily in the sound of "Oh!" prolonged, 
say ten or twenty seconds in time; place the flat of the hand on the 
lowest bone in the middle of the lungs, in front of the lower chest, 
just over the stomach, and with the fist of the other hand pound 
the back of the first as rapidly as possible while making the tone 
"Oh!" The result will be a wavy vibration of the sound as in the 
tremulo. 

The purpose now is to connect the wave-movement 
with the voice while omitting the use of the hands. This is done 
by continuing the former a^istance for a while, starting the tone 



394 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

with, it, then removing the hands. It will he found that the voice 
will go on hy itself. Then the treniulo must he reduced to that 
point where the ear can hardly catch it as a vibration. Adopt this 
into your voice on all occasions, ordinary as well as special. Never 
allow a person to suspect that your tones are vibrator} 7 , or that 
there is any change in them, for the affectation will defeat the 
purpose, besides being foreign to the true intermittent stress. 



$ 50f I 

The nervous system must be in harmony with the 
emotion. 

This is the 501st Ralston Principle. It is of the highest im- 
portance in the effort to control another or others. We have 
named one hundred emotions, in groups of ten each, under ten 
great passions. Each emotion is a vital and preponderating condi- 
tion, capable of taking supreme charge of all the faculties to such 
an extent as to lead them, though not necessarily to divert them 
out of the channels of their best usefulness. All magnetism should 
be captained. Every mood should have leadership. 

It is then of very great importance that the emotion 
to be impressed should be fully understood, and that the nervous 
system should be brought into harmony with it. This is really the 
work of magnetic coloring, and can be acquired only by practice 
in cases where it is unknown. It is a rule that when a color has 
once been acquired it cannot be lost: or at least may be readily sum- 
moned at any time when the person is able to concentrate his whole 
attention upon it. Without this complete interest in what you are 
doing or saying-, you could not be fully in earnest. Xo lover can 
win the object of his adoration if his interest in her is dulled and 
weakened. He may ask her the pivotal question at a time when 
she is so much in love with him that she will lose no time in deliv- 
ering the affirmative reply; but this is not winning her; it is merely 
taking wiiat is offered. 

Of all questions that are asked more frequently than 
the whole remaining categories combined, is that which seeks to 
know if a woman may be won without love, or if a man may like- 
wise be caught. In other words: Is it possible for a man to win a 
woman who does not love him, or whom he does not love? Is it 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTROL 395 

possible for a woman to win a man who does not love her, or whom 
she does not love? Here are really four conditions, for a woman's 
love is unlike a man's. A harder question than all is this: [g it 
possible to win the love of one whom yon do not frequently meet; 
or, can magnetism reach beyond the glance of the eye or the tones 
of the voice? 

We are coming more closely to the solution of these 
problems as we progress, page by page. There are laws yet to be 
presented and understood before the questions can be answered. 
"We mentioned love as the most common of all the emotions, and 
the greatest of all the passions. It is quite clear that no person can 
hops- to win who is not in earnest; but that earnestness may be 
actual or magnetic. The latter idealizes an assumption until it is 
felt as an honest fact. Take any of the everyday emotions, as they 
are named, in expectation at least. Goodness is one of them; affec- 
tion is another, pride another, and so on. If the magnetic mood 
must pass through one of these, there must be a harmony between 
the nervous system and the emotion. 

At first glance it would seem as if it were not possible 
to employ more than a half dozen of the one hundred emotions 
which we have named; but, when they are understood in their tech- 
nical bearings upon this question, it will be seen that nearly all of 
the dark ones must be avoided by careful study to that end, while . 
a majority of the bright ones are necessary channels of magnetic 
influence. Of course', if your life is limited to a few common emo- 
tions, you must work in those, or else set about getting others 
within the range of your powers. 

^ I 502 £ -f. 

A mental assertion should accompany the energy 
of the will. 

This is the 502d Ralston Principle. It is not easy to find 
words for this principle, as it includes something not translatable 
into language while retaining its true meaning. The will is an 
agent of great energy when magnetized. Let any man or woman 
acquire magnetism by mechanical exercises; then place behind it 
a living determination, and few persons can escape feeling the in- 



396 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

fluence that is directly wielded. The only deterrent in getting 
results is because of the fact that the power is not given form. The 
wish of the mind is of the chief importance, and speech is necessary 
for its expression. 

If a ghost were to come to you and chatter unintel- 
ligible noises, you would not know what it said simply from seeing 
or hearing it talk. Ideas to you are not ideas in any language that 
you cannot understand. Even the voice of a presentiment, the 
meaning of intuition, or the motive of sub-consciousness is wasted 
if not put in words that you are familiar with. Many a person, 
talking and understanding but one language, has caught the ideas 
that were formulated in the brain of another who could not use 
or even have knowledge of the language of the former, as though 
an English speaking person divined the meaning in the mind of a 
Russian, while neither knew the language of the other. This is 
explained on the ground that the Russian tongue is known by 
some one who speaks English, and sub-consciousness is able to con- 
nect the two with wonderful swiftness and keenness. It may be ex- 
plained on the other ground that all ideas live regardless of words, 
and pass as ideas, each having form as words in individual minds; 
meaning that if one person could send his thoughts into the brains 
of a Russian, German, Frenchman and Italian, whose language he 
knew nothing of, the ideas would resolve themselves into the 
several tongues as needed for interpretation. Thus, if an English- 
man were to send the idea of a chair covered with plush of a red 
color into the heads mentioned, he would see clearly in his own 
mind the form of the chair, the quality and nature of the goods 
and the color; which, being ideas, are given life in the respective 
brains where they find suitable words according to the language of 
each. This is not difficult. If persons of four nationalities enter 
a room and actually see such a chair, they will not be at a loss to 
find the suitable words for expressing the details. 

A mental assertion takes just the shape we have 
endeavored to describe. It prevents a wild presence of energy and 
determination, uncoined and unshaped. The gold has value be- 
cause it is given form and carries its meaning on its face. Let it 
be a shapeless mass, and no merchant will receive it for money 
until its value is given the certainty it requires. "Will-power is 
most powerful when it is most definite and most defined. "We often 
meet persons who do not have the slightest idea what they wish, 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTROL. 397 

or what they intend even. The aimless speaker is the most tire-/ 
some of all. Not only does he drift and wander to and fro, but he 
scatters his energies to the winds. Some are magnetic in the sense 
that they have a vital energy at the start, which has been accumu- 
lated from previous habits; so the first few minutes of their address 
ring with the genuine tone, and the warmth of magnetism is dis- 
tinctly felt; then they either forget what they are driving at, or 
are confused in its conception, and the effort fails. This is a com- 
mon experience; and what is true in speech is true in every other 
use of the faculties. 

The mental assertion is the formulating of the purpose 
into exact language; in brief phrases, if possible, and adhering to 
the form until it is accomplished, or until the greater end can be 
achieved by substitution of something better in effective power. 
"What I will to be done, I speak mentally over and over again, with 
all the energy, the fire and the determination of my whole nature," 
says a man who rarely ever fails where he considers the attempt 
worth the effort. The fact is, very few persons really know what 
they wish; and fewer still have the power to formulate a determina- 
tion into fixed language. "Call on him, and ask him to subscribe 
for this fund/' says the chairman of the committee to the member 
who is charged with the duty or privilege of raising a certain pro- 
portion of the funds needed. The effort is unsuccessful. The man 
was asked, that is all. The solicitor did not at any time determine 
to succeed; nor was there either magnetism or a formulated purpose 
to win. 

Contrasted with this failure is the effort of another who 
calls upon the same man. There is magnetism to start with; there 
is a knowledge of how to use it; there is the will-power; there is 
the diplomacy which seeks to reach the man by the channel of 
motive; there is the fixed determination to win, and there is the 
mental assertion behind the magnetism, the will and the determina-/ 
tion. The man said afterward: ."I knew by the look in the face 
and the tones of the voice that I was to be overcome. I saw at once 
a determination to obtain my subscription, which was lacking in the 
first member who called on me for the same purpose. I realized 
the hopelessness of obstinacy, and gave in speedily." Here we Learn 
that fixed magnetic determination, taking full possession of the 
person, may change the face and alter the voice. These are eft'ec- / 
tive weapons, if they reduce the opposition early in the confliet. 



398 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

The language used when the mental assertion is 

behind it ma}^ be of interest to our students, and we will try to 
reproduce a few conversations at those vital points where the forces 
of the superior party are doing their best work. Let us compare 
the two sides. One has acquired magnetism by mechanical prac- 
tice and by conserving his energies, instead of allowing them to 
run to waste; he has learned by principles or laws the use of this 
power; he has marshalled his warring forces into one army of 
united energy; he has formed a tremendous will; he knows how to 
fix the goal of an irresistible determination; he speaks the purpose 
of each act by a mental assertion which is a flame of intense fire; 
and then he goes in to win. Against this array there is nothing; 
there is possibly no magnetism, no determination, no union of 
energies; only the scattered forces, perhaps, of an obstinate mind, 
or a set will that cannot withstand an appeal to motive. Still 
it is better that giants meet and impart more skill by requiring 
its use. 

Let us look at the conversation by which the subscrip- 
tion was secured. In this and other conversations the chief move- 
ments only are preserved: 

Solicitor (entering, determined to obtain the subscription): "I 
am glad to see you, Mr. F. 1 have come to see you on a matter 
of importance.' 7 

F. — "Of importance to me?" 

S. — "I think you will agree with me that it is/ 5 (Mental as- 
sertion: "I know you will agree with me that it is.") [Had the 
mental assertion been made openly, the claim that it was known to 
be of importance to him would have at once challenged his obsti- 
nacy; and this should be avoided if possible.] 

F. — "A subscription, I presume." 

S. — "That is it. We expected something from Mr. 11., but 
he does not like music, and says it is better for the people to get 
along without concerts. The young folks soon go astray if some- 
thing is not done for them. They find it hard work to amuse them- 
selves. The band has generously offered to give two concerts a 
week for the price of one." 

F.— "Why does H. decline to subscribe?" 

S. — "He gave as a reason that he could not afford it. as his 
business was not as prosperous as usual." 

F. — "Do you think I can afford it anv better than he can?" 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTROL 399 

S. — "We all know that times are bard, and thai many of our 
best business men are running behind. Some will undoubtedly 
have to suspend. Report classes you with (In- more successful 
class." [This reply was not forced in. 11 very cleverly took ad- 
vantage of the opening offered by F. when he asked if it was 
thought that he could better afford to give than could H. He was 
sensitive on the question of public opinion as to his prosperity in 
business. S. was waiting for a motive to develop, and saw the 
opportunity here.] 

F. — "How much do you want?" 

S. — "No more than you feel you can easily afford to give." 
(Mental assertion: "You are able to give twenty dollars. I know 
this.") [Whenever a magnetic person suggests an idea to one who 
is seeking to settle a matter to which it relates, the idea is always 
conveyed to the mind of the latter. This is very clear proof of the 
fact that impressions are sent from one person to another by the 
waves of the ether-sea. In genuine cases no failure ever occurs in 
this experiment.] 

F. — "I did not intend to subscribe for this object." 

S. — "But you did not fully understand its import" (Mental 
assertion: "You will subscribe for it.") 

F. — (Takes paper, and puts his name down for twenty dollars): 
"There; I judge from what you say that it is money well invested." 

In discussing this matter with a friend, F. said that S. was 
full of magnetism at the time of coming in. Both were very much 
interested in the study of this art; S. having been engaged in devel- 
oping its culture for two years, while F. was taking it up at about 
the time of the above meeting of the two; though neither was aware 
that the other was interested in the subject. F. had personally 
known S. for several years, and had noted the change that had 
transpired both in personality and force of character since the 
study of magnetism began. 

After the success in the foregoing case, S. went to Hi, 
who had previously refused to subscrihe tor the fund, as already 
stated. But it is also true that F. had similarly refused, a detail 
that escaped his mind in the conversation with S. The solicitor 
now took the place of one who had employed no method at all in 
seeking the contribution. lr. was a statemenl of the purpose, the 
asking of whatever amount he would he pleased to give; a refusal, 
a continued begging, and a disagreeable termination o( the inter- 



400 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

view, in which H. hinted that he was busy and would like to be 
left alone. S. now called upon him to go over the same ground. 
The difficulty was that H. naturally had some magnetism, but had 
no knowledge of how to use it or how to marshal his energies; so 
they ran to waste, and his business was really running down. 

S. (entering with a fixed determination to secure the contribu- 
tion) — "I am engaged in the unpleasant task of asking our citizens 
to assist in maintaining a series of concerts this summer." 

H. — "Yes, I know. I won't give anything. I have been 
called upon before, and have flatly declined. Giving is a voluntary 
act, not one of compulsion." 

S. (looking H. in the eye with mental assertion: "You will 
not flatly decline this time") — "I have not said that I called to ask 
you to contribute to this fund; I only said that I am engaged in 
the unpleasant task of asking our citizens who are able to assist us 
in accomplishing this end. Some may give us money; but occasion- 
ally there are business men who have felt the depression of the 
times so severely that they ought not to be asked for money. A 
member of our committee called upon you some time ago, and we 
owe you an apology." 

H.— "An apology? For what?" 

S. — "For asking money. We know that you are interested in 
the concerts, not for yourself, but because they lessen evil among 
the young folks by lessening the opportunity for temptation. We 
know that you are, and always have been, public-spirited, and that 
your sympathy is always extended toward any movement that will 
benefit the rising generation." (Mental assertion: "You know the 
concerts will be of great advantage to the public") [If the re- 
marks had gone further, and accused H. of not being able to pay 
out money, it would have angered him and spoiled the whole in- 
terview. It left the idea suggested but not stated, and it was 
sufficiently in doubt to afford a puzzle to H., who was disposed to 
follow it up.] 

H. — "I do not require an apology. What do you expect me 
to do?" 

S. — "I thought I would call and let you know how I am 
getting along. I was sure you would be interested." 

H. — "Do you mean to say you called for no other object?" 
[Here H. was exerting magnetism in the doubt he stated, for he 
came quickly to a focus in challenging the absurd idea that S. 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTROL 401 

called for no purpose other than to convey an apology. S. saw 

fche disadvantage under which lie wa> placed; be realized the mag- 
netic force of the emotion of a doubt, when genuine, and it WW 
his duty to shift, the mood I 

S. — "My object in calling was t<> see you, to confer with you. 
to ask your advice, if you will give it, and further to ask your aid 
in reaching M., who is either about to suspend in business or who 
uses the idea to keep us away/' | Here S. came back to the hint 
of non-prosperity, but struck at H. without appearing to do so. 
He hit II., for the latter squirmed, remembering that he had giver 
it as an excuse for not subscribing that he could not afford to 
do so. | 

11. — "What advice can I give yon?*' 

S. — "Well, we need a certain amount of money, but are thirty 
dollars short; after exhausting the good-will and the resources of 
the community. There is but one other person on whom we can 
call, and that is M.; but he refused us so flatly that no one dares 
call on him now." 

TT. — "He won't give thirty dollars? What is the largest sub- 
scription ?" 

S. — "I believe F. gave twenty dollars." 

H. — "Are vou sure?" 

S. — "Yes. Here is his name." 

H. — "How did lie come to give so much as that?" 
• S. — "He thought the object a good one. It is a sad tiling to 
allow our 3'oung men and young women to go about with every 
temptation alluring them away from home. The absence of some 
form of public pleasure or private assembly creates a void and 
makes the town dull. Then it is that the devil suggests evil. Two 
concerts a week in the open air would become occasions of im- 
portance and fill this void of utter restlessness," (Mental asser- 
tion: "This you know to be strictly true. Money could not be 
better invested.") [It will be seen that S. was careful to avoid 
giving offence to II. by conveying too broad a hint that l-\ was 
prosperous in business, and offering this as a reason for his willing- 
ness to subscribe. It would have been too direct a charge that. 
those who did not contribute were too poor to do so. The utmost 
care must be taken to please. S. thus far has succeeded in keeping 
the prosperity question before the mind of II., while appearing to 
ignore it. The inquiry of II. as to why V. came to give so much 



402 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

as twenty dollars was a trap to see if S. would hint that F. was 
sirfhciently prosperous in business to admit of his contributing the 
amount.] 

H. — "If F. gave but twenty dollars, how can you expect M. 
to give thirty, when M. has refused to give anything at all?" 

S. — "Most men who refuse to give money to worthy causes 
are likely to change their minds. I am not able to convince M., 
and have not attempted to do so. Instead of calling upon him 
myself, I thought you would be willing to see him, as you know 
him better than I do." 

H. — "If I. called on him I would make him subscribe, but he 
would not give thirty dollars. I think fifteen is his limit. I will 
tell you what I will do. If you will let me put my name down for 
fifteen, that will leave a similar amount for him. You would stand 
a better chance of getting half of thirty than all of it." 

He did as he said, and then asked in a voice tinged some- 
what with pride: "Xow, suppose you fail to get the last fif- 
teen dollars out of M., what will you do?" S. could not say, 
but hoped to win from M. H. was sufficiently interested to ask him 
to send him word how the interview terminated, it seems that S. 
had enough knowledge of the use of magnetism to realize the im- 
portance of working through a motive, as stated under one of our 
principles. lie did not go blindly at M., but ascertained what he 
could of his motives, his wishes and general disposition!. He found 
that M. was an ardent believer in the temperance of young men, 
and on (his idea the interview was managed. 

He spoke of the balance needed, and asked M. to assist 
him. in thinking up the way of gelling it. He then said that, when 
public concerts were given, it did great injury to the business of 
the saloons, and also kept young men from being tempted to qu< s- 
tionable resorts, lie hinted that the saloonkeepers were angry at 
the prospect of the concerts doing harm to their trade. With 
adroit skill and magnetism, S. - eded in obtaining ihe fifteen 
dollars. Of his victory he notified H.. and afterwards F. But he 
took greater pride in reporting to the chairman of the committee. 
It was a triumph for magnetism. There was no chance to doubt 
the usefulness of the special power which he had acquired. Above 
all was the peculiar effectiveness of the mental assertion, which 
seemed to live in his mind, not always in words; for it springs more 
from feeling than from thought. 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF OONT&OL 403 

IS 503 ill 

Magnetism in repose does not seek the eye of 
another. 

This is the 503d Ralston Principle. The old notion that 
honesty seeks the eye of another, and dishonesty avoids it, is not 
so true as it might seem. The farmer who had read in an almanac 
that it is not safe to deal with a person who could not look \ou in 
the eye, lost a large sum of money by pinning his faith to one who 
could look at him all day long. The question involves a number 
of considerations. In the first place, the more honest of two per- 
sons may have weak eyes, and the more dishonest may have strong 
ones. Then, the former may be facing a strong light, while the 
latter may have his back to it. 

Whether for purposes of magnetism, or otherwise, it 
is a good idea to sit or stand with your back to the light, thus 
saving your eyes. This is good advice when alone, for neuralgia, 
headache and weakness of the sight are often due to an attempt 
to read or work with a strong glare directly in front of the eyes. 
Some sharpers, in conversation, make a great deal of this point; 
they work around the individuals whom they are addressing until 
the latter are at a disadvantage. We saw a canvasser, a bright, 
talkative young man, out in the cornfield one morning, so placed 
that the farmer to whom he was talking had the light in his face 
and was blinking like an owl that comes suddenly upon the glare 
of a lamp. 

It is true that the practice and use of magnetism will 
give strength to the eye. Every student of this art should become 
perfect in the various movements provided in the earlier pages of 
this volume, in the Realm of Attainment. Then the eyes may 
withstand every glare, and any position may be taken with refer- 
ence to the light; although we recommend always to secure that 
which avoids facing the light if possible. Little advantages help. 
It would not do to allow the individual to know what your purpose 
in talcing any particular position. If you are unfavorably placed, 
let some detail of the conversation act to cause a shifting about, 
which may be done quietly. 

It is rude and unmannerly to stare at another person. 
It often attracts attention; and when it does, the criticism, is un- 



404 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

favorable. If you look into the eyes of A. without cassation, he 
may think you one of those ultra-honest creatures who can always 
prove their integrity in this way; hut to entertain such an opinion, 
A. must be very verdant. A little practice at gazing will soon 
enable you to look at anything or anybody with the most unflinch- 
ing stares. In good society, what would be thought of it? More 
than one case of insult to women has been charged to the impu- 
dence of the fixed gaze. In the South, some years ago. a father 
challenged to a duel a young man who had looked continually at 
his daughter, although the latter was unconscious of it. A French 
comedy is founded upon the same plot, except that the offender 
was looking at an object near a lady at the farther end of a drawing- 
room, and the irate father mistook the point on which the gaze 
made its focus. 

Let a man look steadily at another man, and the latter 
would invariably ask 'what was the matter; was anything wrong? 
A husband, who cast a magnetic stare, as lie thought it was. toward 
his wife, was met by a look of wonderment and the query: "Is my 
hat on straight?" The following "guides" should be committed t«> 
memory for immediate application at all times: 

1. Never open your mouth, except for a well-denned purpose. 

2. Never speak to a person unless your active will is behind 
the words. 

3. Never touch a person, unless in so doing you think some 
thought pertinent to the occasion and applicable to him. Direci 
that thought to him, and connect it with the touch. 

4. Never look a person in the eye, unless you are thinking of 
something which you are mentally saying to that person, or unless 
you are. speaking aloud to that person. 

5. Gazing, when the mind is not saying anything, is mere 
staring. 

6. When being addressed by a person whose magnetism you 
fear, always look toward him, but not directly into his eyi - 

7. Looking into the eye of a person whose mind (either orally 
or mentally merely) is saying something to your mind, while your 
mind is saying nothing in return, subjects you to his power tem- 
porarily, and deadens the magnetic actios of your brain. 

8. If being addressed by a person whose magnetism you fear, 
and you wish to test your magnetic strength, look him directly in 
the eye, and while he is talking, repeat after him (mentally, of 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTJtOL 405 

course) the thoughts he is expressing. During any pause repeal 
mentally, "My will-power is stronger than yours/' always gazing 
firmly into the pupil of the eve. 

!). A person while talking lias the advantage, if the magnetic 
forces of each are Dearly equal. Bui the glance of the eye of a 
magnetic person may quickly scatter to the four winds all the 
thoughts, ideas and arguments of the person speaking. 

in. Keep the mouth closed, the teeth touching. Any other 
condition denotes a relaxed, tmmagnetic state, unless the jaw is in 
use in eating or you are talking. Practice tliis. 

II. Never waste remarks. Have a purpose in what you say, 
and direct the will to drive home that purpose well. 






f 504 | 



The eye may vibrate the waves of the ether-sea. 

This is the 504th Ralston Principle. One reason for knowing 
the truth of the principle is its certainty under various kinds of 
experiments. The empty staring eye; is not only useless, hut renders 
the person liable to the influence of another. It seems that one 
theory of light makes the transmission of its ray merely a move- 
ment of the ether-sea, as it is well known that sound is a similar 
wave movement of the atmospheric sea. All forces make nse of 
some agencies. 

If the same ether-sea is vibrated in waves both for 
light and for magnetic influences, it must he then that there are 
two or more uses of the same agency. Nature does this in all her 
works. The atmosphere is used for scores of purposes, many of 
them heing so common that it were idle to refer to them. Among 
the larger uses is that action by which power is furnished through 
moving air. It is sometimes the zephyr, sometimes the gale, or the 
ordinary blowing of the winds. In all such activity the same air 
may be vibrated in another way, carrying the sound of the voice. 
We may talk to a friend in moving wind or in still air. If the 
wind blows, and no sound is in it, there is one action without the 
other; if it is calm even to absolute stillness, there is another action 
without the former; if we talk in a blowing atmosphere, there arc 



406 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

the two actions of the air at one and the same time. So it may be 
with light and with magnetic influences; one may exist without 
the other, or both may be found at work at one and the same time. 

The claim that one kind of waves would interfere with 
another, and each become impaired, is not a valid one. In the 
midst of daily life we hear sounds without number, of all kinds and 
degrees of force and quality. Out of what ought to be a jumble in 
theory, we select such sounds as interest us in fact, and pay no 
attention to the others. Even in the deathly quietude of country 
residence, we sit upon the piazza in conversation with friends, while 
the brook is running rhythmically in the near forest, the wind- 
mill is clicking on the tower, the trees are whispering their secrets 
to the sleeping birds, the tree-toads are trilling their shrill ]ay at 
the stars, the katydids are out of tune with the crickets, and the 
frogs swallow great lumps of sound as though it were distressful to 
live at all; yet these are not all the noises that send their wavelets 
along the atmosphere on an August evening in the country. Amid 
what might be termed a chaos in theory, we talk on without losing 
a single word we care to hear; and, when a piano is thrummed at 
some remote house, a violin squeaks in another, a song comes up 
the valley, wheels rattle oyer the road, or voices are faintly heard 
at a distance, these added sounds do not affect us; they produce 
no waves that cut into ours. Even in a group of a dozen or twenty 
shouters, two persons may hear each other and catch nothing of 
more vigorous tones. In the stock exchange, the din of voices is 
unintelligible to those who are not in it, or who do not understand 
its meaning. 

The law of selection has something to do with the 
choice of hearing and of discarding what we do not wish to hear. 
We select what is intended for us or what we are interested in: 
generally we can reject the rest. We cannot, however, reject what 
some person may purpose that we shall hear; for a voice may be 
sent to us against our will. Yet the sounds that do actually come 
to us are very limited, and form a small proportion of those that 
are constantly transpiring about us. The same law is true of the 
ether-waves. Light is ever varied and varying. It is of all degree s 
of brightness, intensity and hue. We give heed to what we will, 
and let the rest go where, they will. In magnetic influences we 
know but little of the waves that are passing to and fro: those that 
are intended for us we may receiye or not, as the conditions permit; 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTROL 407 

those that we intend for others may go i<> their destiny only when 
onr magnetism is capable of impelling them to such end. 

The eye is the organ of light; it feeds upon light; what 
•it cannot see, it cannot know; it thrives in the light, and shrinks 
in the dark. Cave dwellers become blind in time, and are horn 
blind when their ancestors have dwelt in dark places continually. 
If you shut yourself up in an unlighted room, you will lose your 
eyesight, and possibly the eyeballs. On the other hand, the mag- 
netism of the brain shines in the eye, and by a li^ht of its own, 
being brightest in absolute darkness. It is connected with the fires 
of thought, of force and of passion. A thoroughly determined will 
shows itself in this organ, and many a man has quailed before it. 

It is true that the eye conquers in nearly all exhibitions 
of magnetism. A simple request, accompanied by a glance or a • 
look, has won all the victory desired. Magnetism transforms the 
features, but only when it is at work. The photograph of a person 
in repose of mood shows a different face, different lineaments, and 
different expression of the eyes from one taken when magnetism is 
active. Of Sarah Bernhardt, whose histrionic ability is due solely 
to her wonderful magnetism which has inspired all her culture, 
it is said that she has the face of a devil when she is in repose or 
lacking animation, but that she has the face of an angel when ' 
under the sway of emotions. One person described her as beautiful, 
and was taken to task for it by another who had never seen her; 
but in less than fifteen minutes after the curtain went up, the 
latter agreed that she was indeed beautiful. A man married an 
actress because of her beauty. In her home life she was neutral, 
homely and even ugly in face. He could not believe his eyes, and 
proclaimed that love was blinder than an old horse. This aroused 
her to anger, and she opened on him with a broadside of magnet- 
ism. He saw her face lighted up, and was the lover once more, 
though not to be satisfied. The excitement and thrill of approach- 
ing wedlock have fired many homely women with a temporary 
magnetism, which has lighted the face into beauty. This art never 
fails to enrich the voice or to lend charm to the features. Could it 
always remain alive in the individual, there would be no undula- 
tions of effect. 

The point before us is the fact that the mere appearance 
of the face may carry conviction without the use of other agency ; 
but this appearance must be the result of an accumulated mag- 



408 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

netism. This mucli is accomplished by mechanical practice. Yet 
more is needed. There should be established, as soon as possible, 
a magnetic temperament, under the guidance of the principle relat- 
ing to that acquisition. More yet is needed. The will-power should 
be cultivated; and the principles that assist to that end are many 
and effective. Then the fixed determination should take thorough 
possession of the mind, the nerves and the body. This, of itself, 
shows fully in the face, and has done more to win victories than 
all else combined. 

We recall the cases of women who now rule their hus- 
bands, who had no control whatever over them a few years ago. 
It is not improper for a woman to hold such sway, for the influence 
is not hypnotic; it is magnetic and inspiring. These cases are 
numerous, and the women are graduates of this method. In nearly 
every instance they acquired the power solely by reading or by 
hearing the laws of the art stated by teachers. These laws have 
remained the same, although their language has been more or less 
extended until we placed them in the form of principles. Let us 
look further into the cases referred to. 



$ 505 



The eye should be used with the mental assertion. 

This is the 505th Ralston Principle. It should not be in- 
ferred that the eye is to be always used. The law means that, if 
used, the mental assertion should accompany it. We are satisfied 
that it is wrong to use the eyes when there is a strong influence 
about you, and yours is latent or quiescent. "I was in the midst 
of a very lucid explanation of a certain mutter to some friends of 

mine, when Mr. entered the room, and raised his eves to 

mine. In the instant I caught his burning gaze, and my thoughts 
went everywhere. I was the more surprised because it was the first 
time 1 had ever seen him." It seems that the person who entered 
had been challenged to divert the thoughts of the other individual, 
and formulated the mental assertion: fc You cannot think what 
you wish to say." This was brought with him into the room. 
Before entering, he stood for ten minutes in an adjoining room. 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF COXTROL 409 

milking the effori to accomplish the same end without using the 
eyes; but, as the other person had some magnetism, this failed. 
He then entered the room, caughl the eye as stated, and succeeded. 
This showed thai the wave influence was communicated through 

the eve. 

Just prior to the statement of this principle we had 
referred to women who formerly had no control over their hus- 
bands, but who secured it through the use of this method. Our 
reports are so numerous (hat it would he impracticable to state 
them all, or even, many of them. It seems that some of the mosl 
satisfactory cases of t he acquisition of magnel ism came out of noth- 
ing but the influence of reading the laws, or hearing them stated 
in private lessons. As set forth in the present work, it is now a 
complete system, and private teaching would he of no w^'\ nor do 
Ave think a student would make half the progress under a teacher, 
whether publicly in lectures or privately in personal talks that 
Mould he made by the use of the book. We do believe, however, 
that a course in expression will he of vast help, especially in the 
specific ways mentioned, and in broadening the mind and char- 
acter besides. 

If reading is able to change the current of one's life, it 
is a grand thing. It is well known that biography has done this, 
indeed, it is the hearing, reading or otherwise knowing that one 
man has achieved greatness through certain propensities that has 
inspired many a man to cultivate those wvy qualities that are 
needed. Xo person can possibly read the principles of magnetism, 
and their attendant explanations, without being benefited. A 
simple illustration is seen in other things. A man learns that thin 
shoes and a damp ground will quickly draw from his body all the 
vitality that can. be freed, and that severe colds will follow, as well 
as loss of buoyancy that is needed in order to establish health, lie 
does not go to practicing, nor does he take anything to regulate 
the conditions about him. He simply wears thicker shoes, and 
escapes further colds. This is the influence of reading, perhaps. 
So another person, who suffered from weak lungs, learned that to 
add a very little to every inhalation would soon strengthen the 
lungs; lie did. not go to practicing, nor did he take an\ time from 
his duties or his pleasures; he had to breathe, and it was as easy 
to "add a little inch" to each breath as not to do it, and soon a 
new habit was established. Jle never lost a minute of time in this 



410 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

attainment. Nearly all the substantial improvements of life are 
secured in such ways. 

Let us lock at some of these instances, and see what 
help they may be to us. One woman says: "I was unable to in- 
duce my husband to give attention to his home. I scolded him for 
a year, and had coaxed him for a year before that. I tried to shame 
him. He spent his evenings away from me, and merely provided 
for his family. A friend of mine, who had the same trouble with 
her husband, told me that I could stop this by the study of mag- 
netism. I did not practice regularly. I suppose I may say I did 
not do any real practice, for I took up an exercise from time to 
time as I saw the chance. The little I did was improving. The 
best was in the advanced method. These I read, and I repeated 
my reading over and over again, until I could understand. This 
plan suited me best. I became more careful of my energies; and 
it was most gratifying to know that I could acquire a great amount 
of magnetism by just saving myself all the time. It took me away 
from no duties whatever. It was living, and one must live. I 
think it easier to live right than wrong in this way. My husband 
knew nothing of the course I was taking. I could see day by day 
that he had greater respect for me. Soon he found excus< s for not 
going away so much. After a while I had complete control of him. 
My home has been completely reformed in every way, and I am 
grateful for this blessed change." Her story is not the same as the 
others in its details, but it contain- the keynote of the whole series 
of reports. 

A few specific accounts may prove more interesting. 
Those given here are taken from portions of reports. The I 
lot are from the wives we have referred to in t lie pages immediately 
preceding. One writes as follows: "My husband was able to sup- 
port me in better fashion than he did. I told him so: but to g 
ten dollars from him was like pulling teeth. 1 resolved to go with- 
out new clothes, so as to get the books on magnetism. I studied 
what I could, but my time was taken up with duties that prevented 
my practicing. What I learned of the will-power was worth many 
times the large amount of money I paid for the work. 1 was 
different woman. One evening 1 asked my husband for a hundred 
dollars. He laughed. It was a sickly laugh, and faded away under 
my gaze. I said to myself while looking at him so earnestly that 
he quailed: 'You will give me one hundred dollars.' I had 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTROL 411 

learned not to say or think the mental asserl ion, but to fe< L it. Ee 
asked why I had asked for more money than I ever Bought before, 
and I told him to make up for lost time, as I had been without 
so long. I did not beg, or plead, or cry, or lease, or threaten. 
I used to do; bitt I requested the money. He saw that I was in 
earnest, and I got it, the amount in full." Ii appeared also thai he 
could afford to part with it. In subsequent reports she said that 
he had squandered money away from home thai belonged with hia 
family; and she completely reformed him in this and other re- 
spects. 

Another case is fully as important. A wife writes this 
in a very long statement: "I wished my husband to accompany 
me on a little trip one evening. lie said he could not. I looked 
at him, and made the mental assertion, 'You will go/ and he went. 
On the way home he said I had never looked at him like that be- 
fore, and it made him feel strange. Had I told him what the 
power was, I do not believe that I could have succeeded again. He 
is now completely and contentedly under my control." In still 
another case a woman writes: "My husband, who is in his twente 3, 
took a fondness for my sister, who is eight years younger than I 
am. I endured this for two years. We live all in the same house, 
but in separated apartments. I studied this course for the one pur- 
pose of conquering him without offending either him or her. I 
did it solely by use of the magnetic eye." In some stated conversa- 
tions which follow, the essential principles of other cases are fully 
presented. 

A man who married a woman far more intellectual than 
he, was soon aware of the chasm between her and himself. He 
writes: "Under your advice I went into the advanced course 1 , and 
am well satisfied with what I have done. I took your further 
advice to omit practice if I could gather magnetism by preserving 
my powers or energies. This I succeeded well in doing. [ have 
not the happy possession of a wise intellect, and I could not hope 
to win my wife's respect by that. I tried to convince her of my 
devotion to her. This amused her for a while. Then she began to 
take advantage of it in a way that I cannot disclose at this time. 
It was on one of these occasions that I cowed her, and brought her 
to her senses. I have not written, nor told this to any person. I 
make the report to you for the good of this science." From other 
persons we learned that the woman was high-spirited, arroganl and 



412 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 



domineering. She lost all these faults to her husband, and toned 
them down before others. 

Some brief conversations are given here in a rather 
mixed arrangement; but they will be understood without trouble. 
They are selected because of their difficulty, not one being an 
easy conquest. 

"I wish you to buy a book." 

"I have all the books I want." 

"Not all you need. This is an important one." (Naming it.) 

"What is the price?" 

"ft is very high for a look." (Stating it.) 

"Shoking! It is absurd. Is any one fool enough to buy it?" 

"It is sold freely. It is a necessity in all lives." 

"How can a book be worth so much?" 

"A book's value docs not come from its paper and covers, but 
from its contents or associations. There arc books that have sold 
for many thousands of dollars a cop}*, owing to some special reason. 
This book is like a gold mine; it will bring you wealth and power.*' 

"Why do you not get a copy? Have you wealth and power?" 

"I got a copy two years ago, and since then I have made more 
money than I ever had in all my previous years. Then I was in 
debt; now I have twenty-thousand dollars/' 

"Whew! It must be a hook and a gold mine combined. But 
have you power?" 

"T am sure I have. 1 now am able to control myself and others 
as well." 

After an interval of explanation the book was sold, but 
there was no copy to deliver. Permission was given to forward the 
amount to the publishers. When the volume had been received 
and well studied, the purchaser agreed that it wa> of extraordinary 
value, and asked what interest the other party had in making the 
sale. He replied: 

"Not any; not the slightest. 1 simply wanted to see if I had 
the power to induce you to buy it. I selected you as the hardest 
case I knew of: and I selected the most costly and most valuable of 
books." 

It was a victory without doubt. The mental assertion 
Mas constantly made during the dialogue: "The book is a gold 
mine."' and the idea of financial reward seemed most apparent. 
Here is another case. A young lad v. who had been introduced to 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTROL 413 

a gentleman whom she very much disliked, had the audacity to 
tell him so. The introduction was brought about by a trick which 
she soon discovered. 

"I wish you to dance with me this evening. I am sure you will." 

"I am sure I won't. I dance with gentlemen/' 

"Well," he said, looking at her severely, "I am aware <.l* that. 
I have noticed that your acquaintances are all worthy of you and 
worthy of a queen, though I do not claim rank with them. Von 
despise me because I am a plebeian, while you move in the rank of 
nobility." 

"There are no nobility in America. We are judged by other 
standards." 

"Some women are queens by nature. I know that you do not 
believe me a flatterer." The eyes spoke volumes. Such eyes! She 
looked into them, and they were the pleasantest fires that ever 
warmed her heart. 

A young man lost the love of his sweetheart, and her 
warmed-over affection was nursed for a year by another. He could 
not endure the loss, and took up the ^t\u\y of magnetism as a 
means of winning it back. One evening he called upon the young 
lady by arrangement with her father, who was averse to lover num- 
ber two. She had declined to receive him. The father brought 
number one into the room where the daughter was reading. She 
proposed in her mind to excuse herself at the first opportunity, but 
the father got out first. She opened fire. 

"Why do you call upon me?" 

"Your father brought me here." 

"But at your request. You have been very persistent of late. 
Do you see this ring?" 

"Yes, plainly. You are engaged to another. It was because 
of that engagement that I came to see j'Ou. I do not propose to 
lose you. I will not lose you." He was quiet and free from excite- 
ment. She saw a look in his face that she never had seen before. 

"Am I worth all this bother? What is there in my disposition 
that attracts you? Aw there not other girls better than I am?" 

"I love vou." 

"But I do not love you." 

"You did once." 

'Yes. I did love you." 

'Love cannot change." 






414 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

"But it has. See this ring. We are to be married in four 
months." 

"No; I am sure you will never marry the giver of that ring." 
He did not seem to threaten. He was not defiant. He was merely 
in earnest, and she knew it. 

"How will you prevent it. Will you use force? Will you steal 
me and run away?" 

"No. You will decide that you love me, and this will awaken 
you to your duty. If you marry him, and then find that you are 
mine by the law of the heart, three lives will be wrecked." During 
the conversation he had never taken his eyes from hers. She looked 
down occasionally, and then up again into his face. This last re- 
mark was followed by silence. She cast her eyes upon the floor, 
and wished that he would say something further. She looked up 
again, and there was that gaze still devouring her. He had changed. 
The old love came back in an instant and flooded her heart. Once 
more she was lost in meditation; then she raised her eyes to Ins, 
and they were full, large, lustrous eyes, suffused with tears. As in 
a trance she came to him, threw away the ring, and knelt on the 
floor, with her face upon his knees. The father returned, and 
took her in his arms. The covenant there sealed was never broken, 
and they are happy even to this day. Magnetism had won. 

Experiments are made at times in the use of the eye 
with or without the aid of the voice, to see how much influence may 
be secured over others. One set of these experiments deals with 
interruptions intended to divert the mind of some one who is speak- 
ing. A few extracts will serve io show what is meant. 

"I will now proceed to tell you what occurred. I have already 
said there were four interests involved — " 

"You have lost track of them," was the mental assertion of one 
who was looking straight at the speaker, and who caught his eye 
at this point. This assertion was continually repeated as the 
speaker showed signs of hesitation. 

"These four interests are somewhat as follows. If you catch 
my meaning, which I trust you do." 

"You have forgotten what you were to say."' Avas the mental 
assertion of the interrupter. 

"I was about to state what these four interests are; but I find 
that they are not of sufficient importance to take your time for 
them now. So I will pass on." 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTROL 415 

The bewilderment was confusing to the speak< c as well 

as to the hearers, and it was some time before the Lnterrupl ion w 
smoothed over. In another case a person of powerful magnetism 
resolved to make the effort to substitute a word in the speech of 
a man who was accustomed to repeal himself too much for ease of 

diction. In the experiment to which we relVr, he was using lie- 
word "institution" very frequently, in language somewhat as fol- 
lows. The person influenced him to say constitution. 

"I have said, ladies and gentlemen, thai this institution is of 
the highest rank in its line. It is not ton much to say that we are 
all proud of — " 

•"Say constitution, " was the mental assertion as the eyes of 
both persons met. 

"This — institution. It has fought its way up from the hum- 
blest of beginnings, and is now without a peer in our land. I do not 
say this idly. Some of you, whom I am addressing, are graduates 
of this con — this institution, and you will bear me out in all I say. 
We have watched its growth, year by year, up to this moment, and 
our hearts are full of pride for our constitution." A general 
laughter followed. It was the opinion of many that the speaker 
had been drinking. 

The following case is typical of so many similar experi- 
ences, if the drama and the novel are to be believed, that it may not 
be ascribed to magnetism. A young lady had been annoyed by the 
attentions of a gentleman whom she wished to repulse without 
offending. She had been a student of advanced lessons for two 
years, and knew how to use the power. One evening, which was 
the crucial, he called with the full intention of proposing. Little 
by little, as time wore on, he drew himself nearer to her, and was 
at his best. She felt that he was somewhat imbued with magnetism, 
due no doubt to the earnestness of his intentions. 

"Miss Y., I have come to tell you something this evening." 

"Are you sure?" she asked. ("No, you are not sure," was her 
mental assertion as she looked fully into his face.) He did not 
wince; he was too full of his subject. But she did not dare to 
remove her gaze from his eyes, as it was a contesl of unusual 
strength. She found that she was not to win an easy victory. 

"I am quite sure/' he said, fervently. "I wish to say some- 
thing" 

"Vmi are not sure that yon should do so. even if you are sure 



416 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

y ou will/ 5 she replied aloud, while saying mentally: "You are 
mixed. Yes, you are. You know you are/' He looked at her in 
wonderment. 

"If I am sure I will, I am sure I should. Oh, Miss Y., I am 
positive." 

"I am afraid you are not feeling well. Shall I ring for the ser- 
vant ? You are so pale." ("So very pale, so deadly pale," was the 
mental assertion.) Now his eyes lost some of their intensity, while 
here assumed greater brightness, and she felt sure of winning, if 
she could but keep him from actually mentioning the subject of 
marriage. She knew better than to challenge him by a hint at it. 
Her purpose was to keep his mind on his condition. 

"I am perfectly well," he said, "but agitated. It is proper that 
one of my sex should be agitated when he has something important 
to say to the woman he adores." 

"JSTo doubt it is proper for every true gentleman to adore every 
true lady, but the agitation is uncalled for. You are sure that the 
matter is as important as you think?" She was being defeated, and 
had temporarily lost the mastery. 

"I said I was sure." 

"But you are not. If you were sure, you would have said it ere 
this. I have waited for you, and you are still talking about being 
sure." ("You are mixed," was the mental assertion once more.) 

'I cannot think why I should be mixed, can you?*' 

'You look quite pale. Now let us turn the subject, and soon 
you will be yourself again." ("It will relieve you to turn the sub- 
ject," was the mental assertion.) 

"I must say what I intended to. The room is very warm." 

"So it is out at last. I knew you would be able to tell it. It 
is important, and I feel the effects of the high temperature. I will 
have some fresh air." The man was completely cowed, and gave 
up the struggle. 

A young lady of plain face and lack of pleasing accom- 
plishments met a young man in a social gathering of her church. 
She was a working girl, and he the son of a wealthy merchant. 
They were widely apart in every respect. She fell in love with 
him, and wrote to* us to inquire if such a girl could, by the study 
and use of magnetism, win such a man. We said that it was pos- 
sible if they met occasionally. He was somewhat of a flirt and nor 
disposed to settle down right away. She realized the almost utter 



"] 



REALM OF TEE ESTATE 01 CONTROL 417 

hopelessness of the situation, but loved him, and went to woi on 

studies. Among other things she Learned that charmi 
bod are avenues of approach In securing control over others, and 
Bhe did whatever her means permitted. Soon it happened thai ; 
i e brightened very much, and her manner was interesting. Ot] 
Erentlemen began to notice her. 

She took advantage of every means of seeing the man 
Bhe loved, and of being seen by him; but never Ln any way that 
was nol naturally within the course of ordinary ts, as at 

church, at the Sunday-school, at the mi of young foil 

• ailed, at the social gatherings, and occasionally at other placi 
She kepi her gaze upon him when he did not know it. and once in 
a while their eyes met. Her mental assertion was not, "I \<> 
yon," for that would not have won him, but "You love me," which 
\vas her aim. Pie once said to a friend of his, when he came away 
from one of these magnetic fights: "There's a poor girl that sets 
me on edge whenever I come into the room where she is. T wish 
to get acquainted with her." This he did, and asked her to go 
driving with him. She declined, but told him that she would 
pleased to have him call upon her. 

"Why will you not go with me in my carriage: ' >'her ladies 
have done so. Do you not like driving?" 

"Oh, yes; I do very much." 

"Do you object to me?" 

"No. If I did, I should not have asked vou to call. I would 

leased to go driving with you if my mother could go with us." 

"Then she shall."^ 

This was the beginning. Both the mother and daughter 
were plainly but neatly dressed; yet he felt that their poverty 
humiliated him. and the remarks of his friends added to 
chagrin. He did not (all. and did not invite her to further drh 
This was the end as well as the beginning of the first chapter. v 
i maintained her fixed determination to win him. I!-:- face f< 
lowed him everywhere for days after they had met. Winter c*J 
and went. Summer was around once more. <>ne eveni] 
burst suddenly over the land, and found her ai a. Bodable, or social, 
- sometimes called, without the aid of an umbrella. Be offered 
his aid as an escort, which -he accepted. < >n the way home he told 
her that he was glad to be able to talk with her once more, and 
ntinued: 



418 ' UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

"I was saying to a friend only a few weeks ago that I always 
felt happy when in the room where yon were." 

"But yon were happy elsewhere." 

"Not in the sense I mean. One evening I was waiting for a 
train at a railway station. My mother was with me. I did not 
look about, hut soon experienced the same sensation, and I said to 

myself that Miss is here also. I found it true, hut did not 

let you know it." 

This convinced her that she was able to exert an influ- 
ence over him, and the only remaining question was whether he 
could he induced to love her or not. She knew that there was a 
vast difference in their stations in life. She was poor and a work- 
ing girl; he was not only rich by his parents' wealth, but had come 
into the possession of a fortune by other inheritance. Magnetism 
to her was a religion. It made her sweet and lovable at home and 
in the little society that she entered, thanks to the church. A few- 
clays after the rainy evening episode, she was offered a much better 
position under another employment, with salary out of proportion 
to the value of the services rendered. In her spare evenings at 
home she had studied book-keeping with the aid of a girl friend, - 
that she was able to do con- ble in that line. She and her 
mother were all that remained of a family of four, the father and 
sister having died. Her mother had doi - ' _. and had suc- 
ceeded in supporting herself with the aid of the daughter. 

Something in her heart told her that the young man had 
been instrumental in the change of her employment. Magnetism 
makes a good business man and a smart woman eTen out of humble 
material. As soon as she was satisfied that she could he woi 
required, she surprised her mother by renting a very neat an 
stylish cottage in an excellent locality, at a price not as low as 
good judgment would otherwise have dictated. She had the par] 
beautifully furnished on the instalment plan, and went into del 
in other ways. Then she dressed herself better, did as much for 
her mother, and forbade the latter taking in work, as her horn 
duties were enough for one woman. This stroke o( business policy 
in home affairs is mentioned as an evidence of the value that jud_ 
nient renders to magnetism, and both to each other. lie saw h 
as frequently as before, but bided his time, for his parents would 
be bitterly opposed to the idea of such a match. In a period of 
mental suffering he confided his love to a woman of commanding 






REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTROL 419 

position in society, and she at once agreed to open the way for 
him. One day the girl's mother was surprised to receive a call from 
this lady. Then followed the girl's entrance into society, and the 
rest may be surmised. The young man's parents consented to the 
wedding. The love seems mutual in every respect, and the mar- 
riage is still a happy one. 

The papers have referred to certain captures of 
wealthy sons by the influence of women; and there are several cases 
that might be mentioned. One of the most recent may explain the 
others. A young man in the twenties came into the possession of 
more than a million dollars. It was agreed between the brother, 
the sister and the mother of a pretty miss that she should make the 
effort to win him by magnetism. The papers have called it hyp- 
notism; but this error is explained on the theory that the public 
are not familiar with the fact that hypnotism is a negative influ- 
ence, and magnetism is positive. We are familiar with the facts, 
and know that no attempt was made to hypnotize the young man. 

This family of four remained in the best society of a 
large city after their finances were waning, and they knew that 
their elegant home must soon be lost to them if some good fortune 
did not intervene to save them. Each had a separate book of ad- 
vanced magnetism, and put it to good use. They were not forward 
in their efforts to influence the millionaire, but soon brought about 
a marriage with the pretty miss. The strange thing in this affair 
is the fact that, when his relatives undertook to save him from the 
impending alliance, he left his home, and took up his residence 
with the family of the prospective bride, where he remained for 
two years after the marriage. The claim was made that he had 
been kept under hypnotic influences for all the time, and that he 
was of unsound mind in consequence. This was not sustained. He 
built a large house to which he moved, and where he is living to- 
day. That he is mentally bright is known from the fact of his 
success in business, wherein he has added considerably to the for- 
tune which he inherited. 

In another case, a young man of poverty, by which is 
meant of humble earnings, fell in love with a young woman two 
years his senior. In his first letter to us he wrote: "I love her 
with all my soul and body. Can I win her? Can advanced mag- 
netism help me?" We wrote that it would surely help him, but as 
to winning her, he could only decide at some future time. The 




420 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

fact was that magnetism was the only thing that could win, and it 
might do so even in cases where the circumstances made it seem 
impossible. This hit of history, like some others we have cited, is 
selected because of the disparagement between the persons in- 
volved. 

The young man began the study of the art, and could 
not grasp the requirements, owing to a slight mental dullness; so 
he laid it aside. Then came the renewed longing to win the young 
lady. She was about twenty-one years now, and he about nineteen. 
She was the only child of well-to-do parents, and seemed to be 
destined to become an old maid, for she had refused to consider 
the proposals of men who were in every way qualified to make her 
happy. The young man in question was unknown to her. He 
wished she had brothers with whom he could affiliate and through 
them reach her. There was a cousin of hers, .who was eighteen 
years old, and he was selected for the purpose. This is magnetism. 
It is proper to make everything aid its work, so far as it may pr< 
erly be done. 

The study of magnetism was resumed, but too much 
was expected of it, and it was again abandoned. Still something 
had been gained each time. A year later he began in earnest, and 
kept up his zeal till he felt the power of a tremendous pur] - 
coming into his life. His nature underwent a change that sur- 
prised his friends. The cousin was glad to know him and to be 
with him. In his capacity of wage-earner he rose to that of a 
superintendent by the time he was twenty-one, and then he em- 
bodied this remark in his report: 'Tf I am not able to win the lady 
whom I ]o\c. and who is far above me. I can truly say that mag- 
netism has accomplished wonders for me in other ways. I know 
positively that it has raised me from the common ranks of labor to 
a position far greater than any I ever had hoped to reach." He 
was at last an appreciative admirer and student of magnetism. 

Omitting the processes whereby he reached an acquaint- 
ance with the lady, we append a conversation which he had with 
her at an opportune moment, when circumstances placed them 
alone at her home for a brief period one evening: 

"You are much interested in our sex. I should judge from the 
way you. talk of them/' 

"I am interested in one of them. She is so far above me 
socially that I do not know if T could win her even if she loved me." 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTROL. 421 

"Does she love you?" 

"Not a bit." 

"Does she know of your love for her?" 

"She does not even suspect. If she did she would hate herself 
for ever having talked with me." 

"Are you sure she is not playing the part of an ingenuous 
maiden?" 

"I know she is not. She is too plain, too practical for that." 

"Is she of a lovable disposition?" 

"Her disposition is lovable; she never loved, and is said to be 
of a cold heart toward men." 

"Don't you believe all you think. Girls are not old maids from 
choice, but from necessity. Some do not meet the men they love, 
and are too honest to marry those they do not love." 

"This girl is an exception." 

"Who is she?" 

"I cannot tell. I respect her too much. She is far beyond 
my reach." 

"Well, who is she?" 

"I am afraid I would offend her if I should tell." 

"How can you offend her by telling me? I promise to keep 
your secret. Confide in me as you would in a sister." She ex- 
tended her hand, and gave him that confidence which her superior 
nature made a lavish expenditure. "Now tell me." 

"You will hate me." 

"Why?" 

"You are cold in heart, and do not like to hear of love." 

"But I can hear what you have to say. Who is the very for- 
tunate lady whom you love so much?" 

"She is very unfortunate." 

"No. I would congratulate her with all my heart." 

"You are trifling. What hope can a young man have who 
loves a lady far above him in social rank and fortune?" 

"The hope that she will love him. Now, who is it?" Her eyes 
rested full upon his. He sent the final shaft of love into her heart; 
he threw the red fire of passion, and the trophy lay upon Ins breast. 
She had no suspicion of the lady's name when the conversation 
opened. It was a complete victory, won under the subterfuge of 
embarrassment, during which she believed that he had lost all 
control of himself. 




422 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

These conversations are not in the identical words in 
which they were spoken. We have required reports in the utmost 
minuteness of detail, and what is not clearly stated we have put in 
our own language, without disturbing the principle involved. Xo 
essential has been omitted, and none added. These remarks apply 
to what has preceded and what will follow in these descriptions of 
experiments. Some of the dialogue is presented word for word as 
it has been sent to us, with assurances that it was noted down im- 
mediately after the occurrences stated. Whatever variance there 
may be in language or diction, the only matter that really concerns 
the student of magnetism is the victory and the process whereby 
it was attained. 

One brief account niay prove of interest in this 
connection. A man met what he considered his match in the art 
of control. He was forty years of age, and met a beautiful woman 
of thirty, who was possessed of great wealth. She had declined a 
man far handsomer than the hero of this account, and one who had 
more wealth than she, while the man in question was comparatively 
poor. He received an income of less iJian fifteen hundred dollars 
per year at the time he undertook the study of advanced magnet- 
ism, and about four thousand dollars annually at the period when 
the following experiment was made, two years later. The two were 
conversing together one winter's evening, when he suddenly 
changed the subject, and said: 

"You should be married." 

"What for?" 

"To be happier." 

"No woman is happier than I. Marriage would not impi 
my contentment. I am responsible to no one but myself; then I 
would be the slave of another." 

"Not a slave, I assure you. Your qualities are too command- 
ing for even an equal rank with the best of men." 

"As a flatterer you are not successful. Your words do not 
impress me. Men are nothing to me: nor can they ever win one 
spark of love from me, since I have it not."' 

"Then you are a beautiful outlaw of creation. Love is the 
mainspring of existence. You are not in earnest. I see by your 
eyes that you are in love."' 

She drooped her head like a stricken rose, and when she 
raised it again, the story was told in words. It was to her as much 



REALM OF TEE ESTATE OF CONTROL. 423 

of a surprise as to him, and more so; for she had never given him 
one tender thought. If some one had sugj I his name to her 
an hour before as a possible lover, she would have treated the idea 
with raillery; if some one had hinted that she might become his 
wife, she would have been indignant to the highest degree. Yet 
she fell in love with him so desperately that there was no escape. 
For weeks she fought the idea as monstrous, and found that there 
could be no peace of mind, no happiness of heart, except by an 
alliance with him, and she became his wife. He had sent into her 
life the shaft that fells; he had thrown the red fire of passion. 

Children are controlled by their parents through mag- 
netism better than by any other process. Punishment is an appeal 
to the lowest of physical forces; the threat of punishment carries 
with it more influence, if the threat is known by the child to be 
always fulfilled. It should not be made carelessly, for then there 
is no faith in it, as the element of certainty is taken out. Let any 
child be so trained that it can depend on what its parents say, and 
let them avoid saying what is not meant or what is not necessary to 
the situation, and the government of children will be less difficult. 
But above all such measures is the use of magnetism. 

This implies that the parent possesses the power 
mechanically; that is, it has been collected either by practicing 
exercises or by conserving the energies of the body; either or both 
of these methods will give a great fund of magnetism. This is the 
starting point. Xext is the knowledge of how to use the power; 
the fixed determination, the will-energy, the goal of purpose, and 
the mental assertion, together with all those means of helo that 
easily blend into one action of the magnetic centres. A glance of 
the eye conveys all to the child. It is the channel of communica- 
tion, and is irresistible. There is no parent who need use any 
other means of obtaining obedience. Most unruly children are 
made so by the condoning of their faults under the sentiment of 
indulgence. This is harder for the child in the years to come. 

The mental assertion in all cases of control must be 
used with intelligence. It is said to be mental because it is formu- 
lated in the mind, and there receives its shape in language capable of 
interpretation; but it is in reality born in the energy of magnetism, 
and its source of origin should be treated as deeper than the mind. 
We think in our feelings, and feel in our thinkings. Practice of 
the most elementary character serves to develop this power. You 



424 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

meet a friend, and say: "Good morning.'" This is one of the 
simplest and commonest of sayings, and in almost every case comes 
from the latent will. Put back of it, now, the active will, and the 
result will be quite different. How are you to do this? There must 
be thought behind the words, "Good morning." Thought flashes 
quickly. Many extended thoughts can be called into existence 
while a very short sentence is being spoken. It takes time to shape 
the thoughts into words even in the mind. This framing of mental 
sentences is not necessary. In saying "Good morning," speak it 
with the accompanying thought of "I intend that you shall believe 
this is a good morning." 

"How do you do?" Accompany such a remark by the thought, 
"I intend thai: you shall tell me how you do." 

"Will you come with me?" To be accompanied by the thought 
"You must come with me." 

"I am sorry, but I am unable to do so." To be accompanied 
by the thought "I will not do so, and you cannot compel me." 

These easy illustrations may be adopted by practicing 
them sufficiently. At first the thought will not accompany, but 
will follow the words. Familiarity with the method will soon unite 
the two. In this, as in the exercises following, observe two things: 

1. Employ the active will earnestly; that is, mean what 3 
say. 

2. Excite the nerve centers into a magnetic state by the em- 
ployment of the internal energy. 

You look a person in the eye. It must be for a purpos 
never allow it to be purposeless. Try the following occasionally 
with your friends. Avoid doing it in a way to attract too much 
attention. As soon as your eyes meet the pupil of one of the eyes 
of a person you are looking at, repeat mentally, thoroughly mean- 
ing and believing everything you say: 
I am looking at you." 

I am looking through your eyes into your brain." 
My will power is stronger than yours.'* 

"You are under my control/' 

"I will compel you to do what I wish." 

"Look away from me." 

This series, repeated several times with a thorough 
faith in what vou say, will have its effect, if combined with the 
nervous intensity which excites mao-netism. The last mental 



"] 
"] 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTROL 425 

thought, "Look away from me," may be made oral, and changed 
into any request you may desire. 

Your child refuses to do a certain thing requested of 

him. You say menally: 

"I am your father." 
"You must do what I say." 
And then orally to the child: 
"You will do this. Do it at once." 

Force of the voice is physical, and therefore incapable 
of winning. It may compel. Any pitch of the voice above the 
middle pitch is physical in its tendency, especially if made en the 
bright side of the voice. Any pitch below the middle is emotional 
in its tendency. From this it will be seen that force in the high 
pitch is generally disastrous. The child at first is frightened at it, 
but soon gets used to its unemotional nature. The experience of 
the world has shown that disobedient children have parents whose 
voices are high pitched and loud, or who are weaklings. 

The school teacher who requires force to keep dis- 
cipline, answers to the same description. The minister, the lawyer, 
the orator, who cannot hold the attention of an audience, is like- 
wise classed. The best voices, therefore, have 

1. A strong low pitch. 

2. Nervous intensity predominating over force. 

3. The intermittent stress. 

You have been insulted. If you can catch the eye of 
the person, throw your eyes at once into the gaze of scrutiny, and 
make their tensit}^ very great; call up within you all the internal 
energy possible while holding a dead still attitude, and, lookin_- 
directly into the pupil of his eye, say mentally: 

"You have insulted me." 
"You will answer for that." 
"You are a coward." 

This may be repeated over and over again. You must 
feel and believe each and every mental remark which you make. 
It does not require the presence of another, nor the commission of 
the insult to make this an excellent exercise. It may be practiced 
alone, and in that case the voice may be used, employing intensity, 
a low pitch and no force. The imagination must be very powerful. 
Can you stand in a room at growing dusk in the presence of an 



426 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

imagined but august personage, whose insult you would rebuke? 
The flash of the eye, the courageous demeanor, the haughty atti- 
tude, all should be assumed by you. Make the mental remarks, 
above given, as dignified and as fierce as possible. Say them over 
and over again for fifty times, endeavoring to add greater nerve- 
power each time. Any movement, however slight, will destroy the 
magnetic influence. 

If you cannot perceive in your mind this being who 
stands in front of you, shut the eyes, and listen. A faint move- 
ment will be heard, very faint indeed. It is the magnetic current 
flowing past the nerves of the ear, which produces the resemblance 
to steps, so easily is the imagination worked upon. At the hour of 
growing dusk the currents are very sensitive in their movements 
along the nerves, and create in the brain many sensations of a 
physical and nervous nature, which lead some persons to believe 
them to be supernatural. 

A truly magnetic individual will be able at will to throw 
the whole body into a tense or sensitive condition, without the aid 
of any outside movement, except, perhaps, the dilating of the pupil. 
This is called the ecstatic condition. It should be cultivated and 
practiced continually. 

To resume let us impress upon the student the desira- 
bility of strictly following the directions given in this volume. 
Eemember that the will may be latent or active: that the latter 
alone directs the controlling influence, and that the accumulated 
magnetism is the controlling influence. Faith alone, or the v. 
alone, cannot be relied upon. This seems to be the deficiency in 
many so-called faith methods. Magnetism alone often exerts itself 
even when we do not seek to use it. Thus we sometimes find our- 
selves, when in the presence of a magnetic person, yielding homage 
to him, though no thought of his is directed toward us. This is 
merely the recognized superiority of the magnetic state. 

Mental assertions should be practiced until they act 
as by a habit. That this can be accomplished is now known to be 
true, for many persons have acquired the use of the will-power in 
all they say and do through first connecting every important re- 
mark with a mental assertion, and they have found that the habit 
is not only quickly formed, but is also a permanent one if properly 
sought. This may be said to be a temperament when it is made 
a part of one's nature, and it seems more natural then than other- 



>> 

» 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTROL 427 

wise. The following are elementary exercises that have been used 
with success: 

First Oral Remark. — "I am very glad to see you." 
Mental Assertion. — "I am in fact glad to see you." 
Second 0. R. — "This is a gloomy day." 
M. A. — "I know you feel that it is gloomy" 
Third 0. R. — "I appreciate what you have done." 
M. A. — "I do in fact appreciate it. ; 
Fourth 0. R. — "I wish you to do this. 
M. A. — "I propose that you shall do it." 
Fifth 0. R.— -"Give me that watch." 
M. A. — "You know well that you must give it to me." 
Sixth 0. R. — "I like you very much." 
M. A. — "I am sincere when I say I like you." 
Seventh 0. R. — "I think a great deal of you." 
M. A. — "I believe thoroughly that I do think a great deal 
of you." 

" Eighth 0. R.— "I love you." 
M. A. — "As Heaven is my witness I am in earnest." 
Ninth 0. R. — "Lend me one hundred dollars." 
M. A. — "I in fact believe that you are willing to lend it 
to me." 

Tenth 0. R.— "This is only one dollar." 
M. A. — "You know it is only one dollar." 
And so we might go on for pages. The student may 
invent hundreds of examples of his own. Whatever he asserts 
mentally with a firm belief in the fact stated, or a firm confidence 
in his own mind that the person addressed believes the fact stated 
to be true, will in reality be so accepted if the nervous intensity 
of either voice or eye accompany it. It will then be seen that there 
must be belief in the student's mind; a firm and abiding faith, 
which is conveyed to another by the vibrations of the universal 
ether, which are originated only from the accumulated magnetism 
of the body. In the foregoing examples let the word in capitals 
in each sentence receive the greatest nervous intensity. Force is 
unnecessary and wrong. 

Cords of influence are convenient terms that enable the 
mind to grasp an idea and a purpose, and wield them as powers 
with much greater energy. These helps are by no means small; 
they cannot be ignored. While they are creatures of the fancy. 



428 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

they have the same all-potent life that comes from the strongest 
children of the imagination. To their use add the intensity of 
magnetic lives, and the will-power is certainly an engine of fearful 
strength. The normal lines make their changes felt both in the 
user and the object toward which they are directed; and this feel- 
ing is so strong that it may be classed among the material forces 
of existence. 

I 506 I 

Magnetic lines execute the mandates of the will. 

This is the 506th Ealston Principle. One of the essential 
laws of the life and energy of the soul is the common fluctuation 
between the principles of attraction and repulsion. Brain activity 
directed to no purpose is of little value, as it effects nothing. Any 
energy of the soul, or conscious mind, set at work to attract or 
repel, throws into terrible use the enginery of a magnetic brain. 
Why this is so is easily understood when the laws of existence are 
known. 

In using your magnetic lines, everything must be done 
in a flash of speed. The will must act as though it were directing 
a lightning bolt. This speed is impossible at first. It may require 
discouraging practice. If not clearly understood, all will be made 
plain as the lessons are read and re-read. The magnetic lines have 
two movements: 

1. Repulsion. This movement proceeds from the normal line 
to a straight line. 

2. Attraction. This movement proceeds from a straight line 
to a normal line. 

A magnetic line may be referred to as having three 
parts: First, the nearer end, which is supposed to be at the center 
of the cerebrum, or brain; second, the farther end, which reaches 
the object of a wish, thought or purpose; third, the median par:, 
which is supposed to be that part of a normal magnetic line mid- 
way between the points, or ends. 

A normal magnetic line is one in which the median 
part is not on a straight line with the two ends. Imagine a bow 
with the nearer end in the brain, the farther end reaching to the 
object, and the median part at the middle or bend of the bow. If 



REALM OF TEE ESTATE OF CONTROL 429 

such a bow were to be straightened, the farther end would be 
placed still more distant; but if the ends of a straight line were 
to be brought nearer, the line would bend in proportion to the 
movement. The will-power must pass with lightning rapidity from 
the brain, through the median part to the farther end, immediately 
after which use the law of attraction or repulsion, as stated above. 
If you are not thoroughly familiar with every word of this full 
course of training, there will be a lack of clearness in understand- 
ing your lines. 

EXPERIMENT. 

We have dealt with the subject of magnetic lines 
through figures and actual lines drawn on paper; but the difficulty 
of understanding them has been so great among careless students 
that the only safe course is in the use of experiments. In the first 
place it must be clearly understood that the only object sought 
after is brain-energy, turning itself into magnetic energy. To 
begin with, we will assume that you have no magnetism; or, if you 
have, that it is uncontrolled. Did you ever see a bale of cotton, 
all loose and fluffy? In it are possibilities of strength. They must 
be made into threads, cords and ropes. 

Your body consists of tissue-cells, so many millions in 
number that you could not count them in ten thousand years. 
Each cell is an organized life, having a complete existence, and 
capable of supporting itself alone. It can eat, digest and multiply. 
It has intelligence, as can be easily proved. It has energy! Your 
body is a collection of energies, but in the form of a mass, as un- 
controlled for magnetic purposes as a bale of fluffy cotton. The 
possibilities are there, but no more. Let us see if you can turn 
them into lines, into concentration, into a dangerous force. You 
well understand the power of union; but what may be the power 
of a concentrated union of energies, each great in itself and capable 
of a multi-million force, as the world has often seen, is a problem 
that can be solved only by experiment. 

We must commence with the mind, for it represents 
will. Some wills are lax, others are firm; but, among the strongest, 
very few are able to weave their energies into a concentrated line. 
Thus the obstinate man is full of will-power, but it is generalized, 
as in the mule; and obstinacy is unmagnetic. Assuming that you 
have no will, that power must be first cultivated. No bet; 
attempt can be made than to adopt the regime, or any unusual 



y 



430 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

part of it, stated in the first volume of Magnetism. The next step 
is concentration, or the weaving of all yonr millions of energies in 
one powerful line. This must be done solely by the imagination, 
for the force of this agency is able to overcome matter. We do not 
refer to that nothingness which people scoff at when they say "it 
is only imagination;" but to the power of the mind to summon an 
ideal to its assistance. This is the secret of genius in poet, author, 
orator, actor and warrior; for even the general wins his victories 
in his mind before the plans of battle are made. 
(^ The difficult part of our experiment is now at hand. 
The better way is to train the will at home and alone; always basing 
it upon some principle in the study of magnetism. With this in 
view, seclude yourself so as to be free from disturbing influences., 
and proceed as follows: 

1. Sit at one side of your room, so as to get as great a distance 
as possible between you and the object. 

2. Place any small object on the table as far away as the size 
of the room permits. 

2. Draw in your mind a straight line between the core of your 
brain and the object. 

4. It is well understood that intense thinking about any matter 
will produce an affirmative or negative effect. Try this, and see: 
let the matter be what it will, a wish, an object, or a fact. You 
will either master it or be mastered by it. Success in life is secured, 
often unconsciously, by concentration of attention. The tissue- 
cells are being lined up into ropes of energy. Every great life is 
based on this one principle, and it is ninety per cent, of the full 
source of power. 

5. But intense thinking is not our chief purpofi 'tis place. 

6. The straight line between the core of your brain and the 
object should be designated in the imagination as a silver cord. 
A magnetic brain has no difficulty in creating this silver line as a 
seeming reality. A poet sees his ideal, and actor his counterpart, 
as a thing of existence; so all great men behold the goal of their 
ambition in perspective. 

7. The normal line is always a departure from a straight line, 
yet passes from the core of your brain to the object. It should be 
designated in your imagination as a golden cord. 

8. A magnetic exercise of the will may be made in one of two 
ways: Attraction and repulsion. 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF CONTROL 431 

9. Attraction changes the silver line into a golden line, and in 
doing this the angle or curve of the golden line is taken, not the 
line itself. 

10. Repulsion changes the golden line into a silver one; or, in 
other words, the curved line becomes straight. 

11. The change summons magnetism; the concentration mar- 
shals the energies; the rapidity of the change denotes the heat of 
the magnetism. 

12. If you can imagine the silver line to be attached to the 
object on the table, and then raised in the middle to an altitude 
half. its length, or nearly to the ceiling, you will at once realize 
that the object is brought nearer to you by changing the silver 
line to a golden line. Let us suppose this brings it half way. 
Again imagine a silver line to connect it, and let it be raised to a 
golden line, the center of which is raised to half the length. Thus 
the object comes nearer in the mind. A few more repetitions, and 
it is yours. If the process is hard to understand, attach a cord to 
a chair at one end and to a spool at the other, then raise the cord 
in the middle. The spool moves toward the chair. Cut the cord to 
make it shorter, and repeat. Soon the spool will be close to the 
chair. 

13. Repulsion is simply the reverse. The bent line is straight- 
ened out, and the object is driven off. While all this appeals to 
the imagination, it is powerful. A number of great results have 
been attained in this simple use of concentrated energy. A strong 
instance is that of the man who could not drive a certain tempta- 
tion from his life until he used the repellant lines. He said: "My 
mind was on the shifting of the curved line to the straight one, 
and I gradually saw the evil being driven from my life. It was 
imagination while it was going on, but stern reality when it was 
accomplished. The magnetic lines furnished a leverage by which 
to work, a something for the mind to do/' 

14. To test the efficacy of mental concentration, apply the 
magnetic powers of changing the silver lines to golden for attrac- 
tion, and the golden lines to silver for repulsion, to any object of 
the affections or to any hope, quality, wish, ambition or person. 
That you may win friendship and ward oif enmities is a matter of 
absolute certainty. 

15. Before the lines may be used successfully in a general 
way, they must be developed in the workshops of privacy and in 



432 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

the way described herein. Time is required to secure a mental 
grasp of them, and weeks of trial may be needed. The result is 
never in doubt. 

16. Lightning movements, and a lightning succession of move- 
ments, must be learned by practice and acquired by use under vary- 
ing circumstances. The habit is weak at first; the apprenticeship 
must be served, and time and experience only produce the adept. 

17. At least one principle in tins volume must be studied 
before any experiment is made in the use of your magnetic lines. 

The first influence of magnetism should be directed 
toward the members of your family. We have had many little 
histories of dissensions between parents and children, or between 
brothers and sisters, and these we have been instrumental in heel- 
ing through the laws of magnetism. As an aid to outer living the 
affection of family ties should be seconded by devotion to friend- 
ship. Do not make this journey alone. Seek friends sparingly, 
but successfully. Make yourself worthy of what they should be, 
and make them worthy of your new self. Let each January sun 
look down on twelve good friends and true, won during the year 
just fallen. Of these a record should be kept. 

Love is golden when it attracts two hearts toward each 
other for the purpose of establishing a home on this planet. Every 
male being of developed growth stamps upon his heart in early 
life the flower of an ideal soul. Every female likewise pictures in 
her sweetest nature an ideal hero. The ideals never change, never 
vanish, although often obscured by clouds for years at a time. It 
is not necessary that they be definite in feature or fixed in outlines 
or contour. The man loves his ideal always and ever, and the 
woman hers. 

Ideals are of the soul, not of the body. When a woman 
loves a man with all the passionate warmth of her sunny heart she 
does not throw her adoration at his body, but at the soul of the 
ideal which was coined from the choicest blood of her youth, and 
stamped forever on the soul-life of her nature. Now all soul-life 
must be interpreted by the agencies of the flesh, which are unreliable 
under excitement; and in consequent \ many a woman has jumped 
into the arms of the wrong man. Her waking moments are filled 
with disappointment and repentance. Of course something must 
be done. Some prefer to sew a patch of tinsel over the gap in the 
affections, and deceive the world. Some separate, and never meet 



REALM OF TEE ESTATE OF CONTROL 433 

again. Some load a drifting life, quarreling and caressing, until 
endurance is beyond question, and then the separation comes. 
Some make their headquarters at the so-called "home/' and wander 
back and forth on wanton wings. Yet all this while the one ideal 
of early youth is loved by both. 

There is no such thing in all the universe as the love 
of one person for one person. Two lovers are said to be "mated" 
for each other; if so, the mating is of the physical or mental en- 
dowments, not the loving parts. The same lovers could be equally 
as well, or better, mated to ten thousand others on this globe, if 
search were made. Fondness of association, and loneliness during 
absence, are common conditions of all created life, and these too 
often pass for love. It is excellent; encourage it; but it is not the 
love of ideal for ideal. It is time in the history of mankind for a 
more accurate analysis of this mischievous power which has swayed 
the world, ruined hearts and homes, and blasted many a fine brain 
by its insidious deception. 

The study of love under the never failing eye of mag- 
netism shows that it exists in two phases: First, as the ideal wor- 
ship of a co-ideal; second, as perverted passion seeking only sex 
for sex, and taking the best available. This passion is a crime 
against the flat of creation, and ill-fortune haunts the hearts and 
hovers over the heads of the guilty men and women who indulge in 
it. The ideal worship is the only love. Let us lay aside sentiment 
and cant, and accept the matter in its naked reality. No one person 
ever fills the measure of the great ideal. Some, when unveiled,, 
shrink to nothingness in comparison with the haloed picture. But 
a serious duty rests upon our loves. There is a power, God-given,, 
which enables us to take the miserable carcass of our shattered 
hope, and in it set the angel-soul of what we loved, nursing it until 
hope and ideal are one. You may make your ideal. 

First make yourself worthy of the best inheritance of 
the human race; then throw the red fire; the golden cord will bind 
your lives together, and your opportunity will come for making 
your loved one your ideal. This triumph over the human heart has 
been many times achieved to our certain knowledge. It requires 
worthiness on your part; a never diminishing picture of your great 
ideal carried by your magnetic power upon the visage of your loved 
one: an evenness of nature, and always the same true, confiding, 
unhasting and unresting resolve to win and keep. 



434 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

■ 

True wedlock is the union of two ideals. The dis- 
appointment that follows marriage in many cases is due to a partial 
or total disregard of the common rules of conduct. The various 
phases of early married life, where unhappiness attends it. may he 
-classified as follows: 

1. The Brute Period. 

2. The Insulting Period. 

3. The Variable Period. 

4. The Neglect Period. 

5. The Criminal Period. 

In the Brute Period, one or both parties, taking the 
advantage of the commonness of the new relationship, will tres- 
pass on the refinement of life and disgust the other. In the Insult- 
ing Perior some slight incident, too trivial to claim attention 
ordinary life, will call forth conduct or remarks that would not be 
tolerated in the presence of others. Because people are married, 
they take advantage of the ties of bondage to inflict deep wour. - 
in the heart. 

Now comes the Variable Period. One day kind and 
gentle, sweet and attentive; the next, sour and morose. If cross 
and pouty to-day, why, to-morrow the goodness is overdone 
strike a balance. The author has studied the married lives of many 
hundreds of people, and is satisfied that the one great charm th 
binds hearts together is an evenness of disposition. The same 
yesterday, to-day and to-morrow. 

But if the Variable Period thrives well in its weeds 
the Neglect Period is sure to follow. The husband mnsl _ t a\gay 
from a nagging wife, and he seeks comfort in clubs, lodges and 
social pleasures night after night, under the pretence of "bus - 
ness." Many men and women are members of very proper asso- 
ciations and clubs, which are better places for the unmarrii 
Every available moment of wedlock should be spent in each othei 'a 
society. 

If neglect continues crime will be committed by one or 
the other, or both. Divorce follows, the home falls. The stroj _ - 
protection of home would be found in the utter impossibility 
obtaining a legal separation. Divorce laws are made by man t 
man's convenience, but all laws divine and natural forbid them. 
For the ounce of good accomplished by their operation there is 
ton of disaster launched upon an already tottering mora- 



REALM EIGHT 




u 



BUT sweeter still than this, than these, than all 
Is first and passionate love,— it stands alone, 
Like Adam's recollection of his fall ; 

The tree of knowledge has been plucked,— all's known- 
And life yields nothing further to recall 

Worthy of this ambrosial sin, so shown, 
Nor doubt in fable, as the unforgiven 
Tire which Prometheus filched for us from Heaven." 




irje Jtlvsbab^ o H Ivar^ess^ 



a 



\ RE there voices in the valley, 

Lying near the heavenly gate? 
When it opens, do the harp-strings, 

Touched within reverberate? 
When, like shooling stars, the angels 

To your couch at nightfall go, 
ftre their swift wings heard to rustle? 

Tell me! for you Know.'' 

(435) 



"WHEN the hours of dau Qre numbered, 

And the voices ot the night 
Wahe the better soul that slumbered 

To a holy, calm delight; 
Ere the evening lamps are lighted, 

And, like phantoms grim and fall, 
Shadows from the fitful firelight 

Dance upon the parlor wall; 
Then the forms of the departed 

Enter at the open door— 
The Peloved ones, the true-hecirted, 

Come to visit me once more." 



(436) 



Tt>e Esbab 



ace o 



•i 



L 



ar 





B u 



T I have sinuous shells of pearly hue 
Within, and they that lustre have Imbibed 
In the Sun's palace-porch, where when unyoked 
His chariot-wheel stands midway In the wave: 
Shake one and it awakens, then apply 
Its polished lips to your attentive ear 
And in remembers its august abodes, 
And murmurs as the ocean murmurs there.'' 




BROADENING rivers sweep to the ocean by the inevit- 
able law of progress. We have serious work ahead. Our 
scope widens as the powers of living grow more potent and 
acquire greater value. We take on a new estate in the 
realm of largesse. The cry is everywhere, "Keward and riches." 
not alone financial, but also mental and physical. Once the human 
family knew nothing but brute force; with claws they held their 
prey, and with tusks they tore the flesh from the victim's bones. 
A few tribes now remain that are animal in this sense; they tell 
us of the age in which we live, while geology brings to light the 
story intensified in remote eras. 

The epoch of brute force is nearly gone ; remnants are 
yet with us in uncivilized lands. Mind has for a long while been 

(4:37) 



438 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

■ 

supreme, and its dizzy height is reached and passed. The sub- 
conscious faculty, revealed by magnetism and stripped of its base- 
ness, is about to open the gateway to a larger wealth and grander 
rewards. In as far as mind has been master of the physical powers, 
so far will magnetism exceed the highest attainments of the mind. 
It is not new; it existed ere matter was rolled out into space; it is 
simply forging to the front by the law of value, and must soon 
take its place in the forerank of authority, capable of uplifting 
man to the magnificent estate of largesse. Reward is right. 
Munificence is everywhere promised, and nowhere fulfilled, unless 
through this estate. 

Magnetism is an attainment that is not designed solely 
for the purpose of affording pleasure in reading. This volume 
should satisfy the mind's desire; but that is not enough. Its pages 
have not been written with that as the only end in view. The 
scholar loves his books, but he never expresses them; after he has 
read and learned a world of science, he is smaller than when he 
began. Law, to a lawyer, is valueless unless he can put its prin- 
ciples into operation; to know all the legal lore of the centimes is 
of itself nothing. The physician must heal, or his wisdom is a 
bauble. The minister must save souls; and he who is possessed of 
the forceful energy to uplift humanity, though his book-learning is 
scanty, is a greater power than the college-bred preacher who talks 
over the heads of the hungry multitude. We must express what 
we know, or the knowledge is a collection of dry bones. Talking 
is not such expression; we must live and act. The wisdom, the 
acquisitions and the attainments of magnetism should yield sub- 
stance in every form; in mind, in bodily perfection, in riches and 
in rewards for our hopes beyond the realm of mystery. 



'He saw the evening's chilly star 
e ibove his native vale afar ; 
tA moment on the horizon's hat- 
It hung, then sank, as with a sigh , 
<l 4nd there the crescent moon -went by, 
c 4n empty sickle down the skjr" 



\LM OF THE ESTATE OF LARGEST 439 



^ 



507 | 



Largesse is the munificent bounty of magnetism. 

This is the 507th Ralston Principle. The power involved Lb 
the means of attaining everything within reach of mortal man; 
and, when magnetism shall be better understood, it will be seen 
that it is chief representative force of the life that follows this 
career. Men have been deified in almost all ages; but the qualities 
that make them heroes are found in the realm of this power, 
whether their renown has come in deeds of valor, in generalship, 
or in the great republic of letters. Centuries ago, if one were to 
ask a man what line of conduct would bring him the most sat 
fying fame, he would reply, the career of a successful warrior. A 
woman would say, to be the mother of a victorious general would 
be considered the acme of earthly bliss. 

A hundred years ago, or perhaps at any time within the 
past thirty decades, the love of fame sought expression in many 
other ways than through the arts of war. Position was at one time 
thought impossible of attainment, except by force of arms; to-day 
it comes in time of peace by the wielding of social or financial 
power, and the latter generally wins the way to the former. Genius 
has always been the child of magnetism, whether it was displayed 
in the stern profession of war, the exacting demands of science, or 
the nights of fancy. The more magnetism a man has, the more 
likely he is to follow correct impulses. The truest judgment can- 
not measure results. In the next few hours of every life there are 
occurrences that follow no mathematical law; they shift as the 
winds vary, true to some succession of happenings that no one can 
foresee. It is like the variations of wind, temperature and humid- 
ity. The laws that are at work are natural, it is true, but their full 
purposes cannot be known, except under the chance of probability, 
and this misleads the wisest at times. 

What to do and -what not to do, excepting the routine 
of existence, must appeal to the judgment on the one hand, and to 
intuition on the other; and, standing on the apex of dilemma, 
many a man has gone down on the wrong side through the exercise 
of his best judgment, while many another man has been led by 
the power of magnetism through intuition into the fullest measure 
of success. Here genius leads the way. Cold calculation never 



440 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

made the Alexander, the Caesar, the Peter, the Frederick, the 
Napoleon or the Dewey. Genius is not reckless blindness; it is the 
impulse that tells a man how to do a great thing grandly. It opens 
the mind to an idea that cannot be understood by others until it is 
executed. When the first emperor of France, by cold calculation, 
figured out that the Austrians would join the Eussians in their 
combined attack against him, he saw at what point the meeting 
would take place. Arithmetic told him that an army, marching at 
the recognized pace, must travel the distance in a certain time; 
and, furthermore, that the total number of his enemies united 
could overwhelm him. Bv no method known to war could he reach 
cither army. Now genius stepped in, and told him that unprece- 
dented speed could place his soldiers between these two host 
hordes. He obeyed. He met one before it had reached the other; 
he conquered and scattered that one, then turned around and dealt 
the same fate to the other. 

There is no exception to the rule that magnetism creates 
genius by giving it quickness and clearness of sight, always aided 
by the best skill and truest judgment; but the latter cannot ac- 
complish great ends alone. Every important life has its crisis, or 
its series of crises. What is called perfect judgment cannot be 
ascertained until all the after-events have occurred; then the loss, 
if any, will be accounted for; and what a man might have done, 
not what he ought to have known, will be proved by analysis. The 
wisest scientist can tell why the hail followed the excessive hear 
a July day; but, seated in his observatory, and watching the haze 
of the atmosphere as it steams beneath the torried sun, he cannot 
say whether the lower currents now tending from the south will 
pass east or west, or rise to the middle-upper or far-upper airs, and 
here, there or elsewhere exchange places with the colder currer. - 
nor whether clouds, rain, hail or dry weather will follow this or 
that change, nor what will blow, whether blasts, gales, hurricanes 
or zephyrs. You ask him, and he will say: If this goes this w 
that will go that; if the hot air can got above the surface of : 
earth, it will let the north wind down. But what will follow 
cannot foresee. Even with the reports of all the continent tell:: _ 
him the weather elsewhere, he is not even then sure of it here. A 
change underway is the foreteller of its immediate results. 
at least; but before that change begins all science is helpless. Wl 
is true of wind and weather, is equally true of human k 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF LARGESSE 441 

The animal is the victim of chance ; while man* a \i< 
tudes are controlled by two agents — judgment and genius. The 
latter is the child of magnetism, and the former is always helped 
by it. This power clears the brain, strengthens the mind, quick* 
intuition, and leads men and women up into the brighter realms of 
life. It is the largesse of mortal existence and immortal hope. Its 
greatest friendship appears in every crisis, when one of two a 
mnst determine whether we rise or fall. There is no certain guide 
without its help. Its right hand may be called intuition; its 1< 
judgment; and the two together, genius. The fruits of this com- 
bination may properly be termed largesse. And in this realm we 
find ourselves at this time. The first direct fruition is called the 
magnetic temperament, and this is never a missing or absent friend. 
Not only in the crises of life, but in every way and at every place, 
magnetism should bring its bounty to men and women. 

The realm of largesse is an estate that is all powerful 
in its opportunities for the enjoyment of success. We include in it 
every bit of life, from the least to the greatest; and we make it 
embrace the whole round of years wherein voluntary action makes 
one a responsible being. While the student of magnetism is bound 
to improve self and surroundings in proportion as these principles 
are adopted and absorbed, the direct advantages come from specific 
purposes in life. These it is our purpose to name and refer briefly 
to in this place, preserving a certain order for convenience only. 
By this presentation it will be seen that men and women should rise 
above duties, and compel all circumstances to yield them power. 
* In the family circle you are expected to hold sway. This 

does not mean that you are to exhibit an arrogant show of authority. 
On the contrary, the highest type of magnetism appears to others 
to be the humblest. Self-control comes through peace, and this 
much is very little to you, though great to others. By self-control 
you are master of your thoughts, your words, your deeds and your 
feelings. Think of that. If such mastery is attained, what should 
be your position in the family? If such control is not achieved, do 
not take another step in this study until you are able to say that it 
is achieved. Things must not be done by halves. Keep in the 
realm of peace as presented in this volume; stay there until you 
know that you are master of yourself. Magnetism follows that, and 
never precedes it. ISTo person has a right to say that self-control 
is not possible. Such is untrue. You, who read these words 



442 UX ITER SAL MAGXETISM 

fully able to master yourself. Now, what does that mean? Simply 
to control all your thoughts. That is hard for a weakling, not 
for you. 

If you do not control your thoughts, some other person 
will. They say that idleness is the workshop of the devil. What- 
ever that may mean, it is true that an idle mind, or one that flits_ 
from weed to weed, is the creature of all influences. There is more 
bad than good in the air about you. Within its compass is an ether- 
sea, whose waves beat against your brain, and start the thoughts 
that you do not control. If a certain idea haunts you; if a subject 
will not leave vour mind, it is because an influence is controlling: 
you. Be strong. Be resolute. Rise in your might, and, by all the 
powers of right, order the subject out of your thoughts. It will 
go. It always does. Then deliberately take up some theme that 
belongs to a worthy ambition, and develop that. Many and many 
a time this exercise of the will has secured the victory: 

Being able to control your thoughts you arc now free 
from serious conflict, for your words may be better handled. Few 
are capable of choosing their topics, fewer of curbing the tongue 
ere the wrong word is uttered; but you are not of them; they are 
weaklings; you are magnetic, and no word will escape your lips 
that is not fit and well advised. This is grand. See to it that it 
is so. Never speak that cross word; it is a sign of an evil influence 
controlling }'ou; avoid it at all hazards; do not allow yourself to be 
ruled. You must be master of every word that you utter, and there 
must be no exception to this position. Cross words, harsh words, 
ill-natured words, mean criticism, only serve to make you enemies: 
and magnetism lies on beds of roses, not briars. Every channel 
that passes pleasure is the agent of this art: the ways of severity 
do not attach to it. Not by yielding to error or to wrong: not by 
budging an inch from the position that you know to be right, but 
by the charms of firmness that do not sting, you should persist to 
victory. *► 

Never write a harsh word. You have time to check it ; 
for impulse dies out ere the letter takes wing to its mission. If it 
is unpleasant, allow it to stand over night: in the morning give it 
thought again, and decide its fate. While all humanity is in need 
of direst punishment — for none can escape the merit of it except 
those who are perfect — you are not selected to inflict the penalties. 
The harshness of living, the scourge of disease, the malice of the 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF LARGEBBE 443 

world, the sufferings of disappointment, the loss of dear ones, and 
,th itself, are penalties that match man's imperfections. Do not 
heap more upon him. There is no way of evening things in thi 
life. To give each his deserts is to add more than he deserv< 
Sweetness of disposition, and beauty of character, are the honey 
and the flower in the human garden. 

While these directions are applicable to all occasions, 
they are particularly so in the family circle, for there you are ex- 
pected to hold sway. Uniformly kind, with a sameness of nature, 
never depressed, always strong in your brightness and lofty in your 
personal character, you cannot help commanding the respect of 
parents, of brothers, sisters, and of children. This is something, 
but not all. It may be a dry ceremonj', without heart or feeling, 
but it leads to the rest. We see you now in full control of your- 
self; thinking only as you desire to think; speaking such words as 
you choose, and choosing the best; doing only that which will make 
your presence lovable to all whom you meet, and mastering your 
feelings day after day through the livelong year. Add to these 
superhuman accomplishments the power that comes from a fund 
of magnetism as taught in the preceding volume, and you will 
pleasantly but continually hold sway over all who are within your 
family circle. 

This largesse is magical in its effects. If you have a 
father, honor him fully; serve him, no matter what he is; cling to 
Mm despite his moral, physical or social stature, for it will pay 
you to do so. The child who has the heart to ostracize a parent 
for any reason should never have been born. Perhaps your mother 
is old-fashioned, as the world now goes, and would not do you credit 
were she to attempt to blaze in society; perhaps she is particular 
to the extent of being fidgety and fussy; perhaps she has ways that 
shock you, her sensitive offspring; perhaps she says things that are 
positively distasteful, if not worse; never mind what she does or 
who she is; the fate that is hers will be yours; she is your mother; 
her arms held you in the tender years of your infancy; her songs 
sent you into that blessed dreamland that hovers like a halo over 
the charmed skies of babyhood; her tears fell when you were sick 
and nigh unto death, and her lips breathed for you the prayer that 
you lisped when sin was not yet in your heart; this was your mother, 
dear, sweet, angelic; and what of (lav there is clinging to her flesh, 
never mind that, but make her supremely happy as long as God 



444 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

spares her life. Take full control of her days, and see that they 
are long and full of sunshine. 

You perhaps have brothers and sisters. They or you 
may be married or unmarried. You know, or will find out, that 
the slightest pique will cause ill-feeling between the members of a 
household, especially if the brothers and sisters have set up families 
of their own in opposition to each other. A severe blow is needed 
to estrange ordinary friends; a mere straw will estrange brother?. 
This is because, being more closely related, they expect more in- 
dulgence from each other, and take offence at the smallest trifles. 
A magnetic person should rise above all such feelings. Even if 
you know your brother or sister is jealous or envious of your posi- 
tion, or has laid to heart some act or word, regard it not, but go 
on as though you were too great to be affected by little things. 
Win and hold your relations together by a bond of magnetism; and 
the harder you find it, the more resolved you should be. By all 
means make yourself master of the family circle, even though irs 
members are scattered. 

Children have come to bless your life, it may be. 
Remember that they are what you make them, not what God and 
nature have ordained. The direct responsibility rests upon the 
parents. Heredity prevails only when it is allowed to prevail, and 
even then it is but the sum total of prior influences. The circum- 
stances that surround the life of the child from early infancy mold 
its character in every sense; while heredity applies more to func- 
tions and faculties. You may see the parent reflected in the child. 
except so far as the child is thrown upon the care of others; and 
there the neglect is often chargeable to the parents. There is no 
way of controlling the little ones so effectual as that provided by 
magnetism. Force rarely ever secures complete triumph. Love 
softens, but must become too indulgent for the real good of the 
child if there is no backbone to the affection. Magnetism gives the 
solidity, the firmness and the structural strength to love, that are 
needed if respect and free obedience are to be secured. You must 
be the dominant master of your children; yet with such a mastery 
that they are glad to bask in its sunshine. Magnetism is of no 
value if these gains are not made. 

Then there is the golden relationship of marriage ; too 
often looked upon as the mere tool of selfishness. The hush 
may hold absolute control over his wife, and she over him. with 



ALU or THE ESTATE 01 LARGE 8 8E 445 

conflict of any kind; for it is one of the charms of magnetism 1 1 
it gives this power of supremacy to both sexes. It always upli 
the user of it, as well as the person over whom its influence Is shed. 
Some men there are who hold a sort of hypnotic control over their 
wives; some women are certainly in the same position as to their 
husbands; bnt hypnotism is like a well in which the subject is placed 
and covered up, only to respond when required. The man who 
would wield the magnetic power over his wife, must himself ascend 
to some higher plane, and draw her up to its height, not depress 
her to a lower condition. The same is true of the wife's control 
over the husband. In marriage, never stoop to petty deeds or 
thoughts; set a standard, and reach it; elevate the relationship day 
by day and year by year, until you have made it all that earth 
affords and hope can cherish. If you cannot do this, you are lack- 
ing in the power which you are seeking to attain. Remember that 
what you are determined to do, you will do. It rests with you now 
and always. Study very carefully the realm of the will in this 
volume. 

Friendships outside the family circle are of the highest 
consideration, and should never be ignored. A man must have his 
steadfast alliances with other men; a woman must attach herself 
to women. It is not the law of nature that the opposite sexes should 
form special friendships. There is no age so young or so old that 
can be fixed as the place of drawing the line to this rule. George 
Eliot tried by the superior force of her personality to rise above 
the idea, but she could not hold her friendship for men in absolute 
purity, as her life clearly shows. Even where sickness would pre- 
clude the thought of sexual love, it has failed to become such a 
Mirier. Elizabeth Barrett was a bed-ridden cripple when Robert 
Browning formed his friendship for her; but this did not prevent 
their marriage. Men and women in the seventies, eighties and 
nineties have entered wedlock. The rule should, therefore, have 
no exceptions. The man's best female friends are wife, mother, 
daughter and sister, in the order mentioned. Nature clearly places 
the wife above the mother, without dethroning the latter; for the 
former is destined, or should be destined, to become the mother of 
his own offspring. 

But the friendships to which we refer are those between 
man and man on the one hand, and woman and woman on thi 
other. They should not be antagonistic in any sense to the duti - 



446 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

of home life or the government of the family. A man must devote 
himself to his wife and his home above all else. He cannot safely 
play false or careless to these trusts without endangering his hap- 
piness and his place in the scale of fortune. When outside friend- 
ships or other considerations are allowed to control either the hus- 
band or wife, then ill-luck, under whatever name or nature it may 
be recognized, will appear and disintegrate the home. What if your 
life is not the heaven you thought it might be; what if your home 
is a place of annoyance; what if your wife is coarse, ugly, peevish, 
sickly, or otherwise distasteful to you; the duty that falls now 
heavily on your shoulders must be taken up the more bravely. 
Look at the case of the man who wrote in confidence: "My wife 
is big, beefy, coarse, with the voice of a bulldog; with great rough 
hair, pimples and warts on her face, a shiny nose, a mustache on 
her lip, and whiskers sticking out in spots on her once dimpled 
cheek and chin. She is no fairy. Her step is masculine and jars 
the house. What must I, can I, do? Shall I approach her mentally 
or physically, in the hope that these little counter-influences may 
be toned down? If I approach her mentally, I must use a chisel 
and hammer to insert the ideas beneath her thick skull. If I ap- 
proach her physically, I cannot endure the strength of her breath 
without a disinfectant, a deodorizer and a hose. Xow, where is the 
romance of my life?" Where was it, in fact? 

He thought the matter over in all its seriousness, and 
found that magnetism sometimes has tasks of equal difficulty 
perform. The breath was foul for two reasons: the teeth were 
decayed, and the stomach was bad because of a wrong diet, lie 
succeeded in making his wife believe that he was very muck 
earnest in his desire to improve his own condition, and this was so 
gradual that she did not ridicule it as a piece of sudden reform. 
His magnetism increased, and swept her into the same tide of bet- 
terment. The diet came about through the laws of health, and the 
teeth were blacksmithed by a dentist equal to the situation. Then 
science, as expressed in the Ralston Health Club of advanced mem- 
bership, relieved the face of its blemishes. All minds yield to the 
influence of others more magnetic. This woman took up the home 
college course of Ralstonism, and developed in thought as well as 
in all her faculties, until the husband at length wrote that he was 
proud of her. We cite the Case because it was the most extreme 
one that could possibly be imagined. 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF LARGESSE 447 

It is always true that a magnetic wife may make her 
husband what she will. It is not true that a wife without magnet- 
ism can do anything with her husband. She is powerless. In her 
despair she says: "Oh, well; I cannot do impossibilities. I must 
have something to work upon/' implying that the partner of her 
choice is totally depraved or a hopeless degenerate. You have the 
same person to work upon that you had in the glorious days of 
courtship, and what he seems now is but an inverted character. 
Turn him inside out, or outside in, as the case may require. Mag- 
netism delights in great conquests, not easy ones; and the harder 
or more discouraging your task, the more important will be the 
victory. There is no escape from the fact that your husband is 
what you make him. 

Can the alcoholic and tobacco habits be cured? Yes. 
Over and over again the most difficult cases have been mastered by 
magnetism. Drugs and "cures" at institutes may prove effective, 
but the mind is often ruined by the methods employed. No such 
result is chargeable to magnetism. We have seen case after case 
overcome by the man himself through these advanced lessons; or 
through the woman herself, when she is the victim of the habit. 
But the proudest victories are those where the wife has acquired 
magnetism, and has used it to mold the likes and dislikes of her 
husband; and such cases are numerous. It can in every instance 
be guaranteed to any wife that she may acquire the power to cure 
her husband of the habit of drinking, as well as of smoking. There 
need be no failure. This is a very strong statement, but it can be 
proved, as it has been in many cases. 

The friendships referred to as being outside the family 
circle, are important adjuncts to every life. Every man should 
have some male friend, who is to stand by him through thick and 
thin, in every hazard of life, even to the hour of death. This is 
intended by nature, and the very plan on which human society is 
founded. That such friendships should exist, and may thrive with- 
out in any way interfering with the home duties, has been many 
times proved, and the ties thus formed have saved men when noth- 
ing else could. We have known them for twenty-five years at least. 
and we know of alliances made a quarter of a century ago that 
still exist to-day. They were then known as the Magnetic Circl". 
Their purpose was as much to protect the home and the health of 
the family, as the prosperity of the member. 



448 UXITERSAL MAGXETISM 

A Magnetic Circle is founded upon the necessity of 
reaching the great world through a channel of powerful influence 
that cannot be opened in any other way. The first element of am- 
bition in life, if a man or woman would succeed, is the establishing 
of a home of one kind or another. This is the basis from which 
all plans are matured. If there is no real home, a constructive one 
should be made. If one is childless, single or otherwise alone, some 
companionship ought to be formed. The world's influences cannot 
be ignored, and they are best met from some base of operations. 
Normal humanity is not capable of exclusiveness. 

I 508 | 

K ffi 

The Magnetic Circle is the most powerful of human 
influences. 

This is the 508th Ralston Principle. We speak of what it has 
accomplished in the past quarter of a century, and what it is bound 
to accomplish in the future. It is brought into existence by a brief 
but effective constitution, which is furnished by us free of expense 
whenever any owner of this volume is ready to apply for the same. 
This is noted elsewhere in a subsequent page, where also the form 
of application may be found. Before blindly rushing into it, give 
the matter the fullest consideration, and take an abundance of time 
for the purpose. 

The idea of the Magnetic Circle is an old one, in its 
essential value, although the cementing of the friendship was not 
anciently secured by the use of magnetism pure and simple, for 
there were always strong moving reasons for its existence. In the 
Orient to-day there is proof of the operation of the circle among 
men of the highest castes, and tradition places the age of the custom 
at from four to six thousand years. In all civilized eountr 
notably in England and Germany, but also in nearly all of Europe, 
the idea has been in vogue. The first purpose seems to have been 
to have a friend to fall back upon when in stress. Xo man can 
know just when trouble will fall to his lot. When it comes he is 
unnerved, and is less able to take care of himself then than at any 
other time. Two men formed an alliance before the Civil War, 
each swearing that if anything happened to either of them the 



REALM OF THE ESTATJB or LARGE BSE 449 

other would See that his family did not suffer. It was the Fate of 
one to be killed in the war- His \\ ife and five children would have 
"been thrown upon the cold world clefcncrlos but i oj- the efforts of 
this friend, who himself was a husband and father. 

It may be claimed that the secret societies are 
organized for just such purposes. J-acii if it is true, the practical 
effects are very small as compared with those of the magnetic 
circle. Let us compare two cases, and we will take histories that 
are alike, or as nearly so as possible. A man, whose family consisted 
of himself, his wife and three sons, all of good repute, was a mem- 
ber of a secret society. It was one of the large kind, with funds 
and influence to spare. He died. The sons were never benefited in 
the slightest degree, and two of them were cast out upon the streets 
to be tempted and misled, while the other obtained humble em- 
ployment at a very small salary. The wife found it so difficult to 
get help from the society that she had to abandon all efforts, 
although her husband had always paid his dues and met his obliga- 
tions during the many years of his membership. 

The other case is likewise that of a man who had a wife 
and three sons. He formed a magnetic circle, taking alliance with 
one who was, like himself, a man of acquired magnetic tempera- 
ment, and therefore in deadly earnest. What occurred? During 
life they both prospered the more because of the good influence 
each of the other. When the man died, his wife and sons were 
looked after as faithfully as though the deceased were on earth. 
The eldest boy was provided with a paying position solely by the 
efforts of the friend. The other two sons were given the attention 
they needed, the youngest continuing in school, and the other be- 
ing specially fitted for a place in a business house which was after- 
wards secured. The home was prosperous. Years later all three 
sons were in receipt of good incomes, one having entered a firm as 
member or copartner. The man who thus exerted himself for his 
dead friend reports that he did not spend a total of two dollars in 
all his efforts, yet that he performed services that could not have 
been rendered under any other circumstances. Certainly no society 
could do as much, for there are too many interested in a general 
way, and no one interested specifically. Few widows relish the 
publicity of such charity as they receive, limited as it is. We do 
not underestimate the value of these secret associations, and would 
not belittle them. They are verv worthy, no doubt. 



450 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

Other instances without number might be set forth 
(here, showing the value and power of the Magnetic Circle. Some 
of the results attained may be mentioned, for the purpose of ex- 
plaining what is possible under the plan we have had in operation 
lor a quarter of a century. It is also important to note that every 
one of these cases has come under our notice because they have 
occurred in the personal history of men and women who are mag- 
metic. We have always required that a member should be seventy 
»er cent, magnetic, under the test which is provided herein, before 
^feeing accepted in the circle. The reason is a plain one. Help is 
needed. Friendship has no value if it endures only in peace and 
■cannot outride the storm. The Magnetic Circle is intended to 
aeet and avert or overcome disaster. A strong friend is necessary. 
JSTo person is strong who is not magnetic. In this age, and in every 
sage, the man of magnetism has held the power and still holds it. 

You need friends who are seventy per cent, mag- 
netic; because that degree is the lowest in the highest caste of 
strength. You are safe in such an alliance. Any person who is not 
.-a mental dwarf, who studies this volume carefully, is bound to 
reach the required caste, and seventy per cent, is attainable. Be 
sure of that before you select your ally. You will never be eon- 
lent ed with a weakling in your circle. We have made this ex- 
planation because we wish to impress the fact that members of the 
Magnetic Circle have come under our notice because of this study. 
Otherwise we could not have been cognizant of their work. 

In one case a man who was hard pressed in busin se 
had to suffer the agony of a bit of cruel gossip, the intent of which 
was to ruin his credit and cause his suspension. He went to 1: » 
.ally looking east, and told the situation. The latter went to his 
ally east, that one to his, and so on until a number of most powerful 
influences were at work in the man's behalf. It was learned that 
Ms competitor in business had started the canard: this was proved, 
and the result was that the man he sought to injure was benefited 
at the expense of the culprit. Somewhat in a similar vein is the 
■ease of the clergyman who fought certain disreputable places 
open public attack, and was himself made the victim of a scandal. 
He belonged to the Magnetic Circle, and went to the east, as the 
other man did whom we have cited; that ally went east, and so on 
until some good was accomplished. But the locality being small, 
there were but few allies east: so the minister went west as a uriv- 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF LARGESSE 451 

ilege, and, to his delight, the Eriend vouchsafed his cause. They 
wenl to work in earnest to correci public opinion, with the t'< suit 
thai the clergyman was not only saved from the effects of the 
scandal, hut the keepers of the disreputable places were driven 
from town. 

A perhaps very simple illustration of the power of the 
Magnetic Circle is seen in the following instance: A man of mod- 
erate means was suddenly thrown out of employment by the failure 
of the firm for which he worked, lie was nearly sixty years of a 
and in the possession of all his faculties, which were preserved in 
a remarkable manner; yet his many years told heavily against him. 
No one would give him employment. He belonged to the Magnetic 
Circle, and went east. His friend went east, and so on until the 
were powerful influences at work in his behalf. The result was 
most gratifying. He secured a better position than he had- lost, and 
was prospering when we last heard of him. It seems that the Mag- 
netic Circle is a serious affair when it can step in at life's most 
serious crisis, and accomplish what earth's most powerful influences 
are unable to achieve. It is not organized for pleasure, nor for any 
satisfaction whatever, except that which comes out of the certainty 
that help will be provided when it is most needed. In times of 
peace and contentment you are not anxious about the future; when 
reverses come, you are not entitled to sympathy, because you have 
made no provision for meeting them. You did not build the dykes 
when the summer's sun was shining, so the autumn tides bear your 
home out to sea. If you are fully capable of taking care of your 
own affairs without the aid or interference of others, you are won- 
derfully endowed at the present time, but will cry like a child 
when the storm breaks on your defenceless head. The Magnetic 
Circle does not cost you anything, except self-interest and that 
meagre portion of effort that must go forth to reach anything worth 
having. 

Looking east and looking west are terms that are 
adopted in the naming of your life friends, who constitute the cir- 
cle. While we cannot take the time and space to insert the plan 
here, and it would certainly be far from proper to do so, we are in 
duty bound to state what is meant by the terms east and west. The 
friend who is to help you is east of you in the circle; the friend you 
are to help is west of you. This lack of complete mutuality has been 
found most important, for the feeling of mere reciprocity develops 



452 UNIVERSAL MAGXETISM 

into a measurement of benefits conferred as compared with those re- 
ceived, always to the disparagement of both parties, as false imag- 
ination plays such a part in all cases where mutuality exists. The 
two methods have been thoroughly tested and compared; and, 
where all chance for selfishness has been eliminated, there has been 
no flaw found. The circle is magically strengthened by looking 
east for help, and going west to give help. 

To look east does not mean to depart from your locality 
and travel in an easterly direction; it simply refers to the fact that 
your helping friend is to the east of you magnetically speaking, but 
not otherwise. We will explain why this is so. Terms are needed 
for description, and specific terms cannot be avoided. A symbol is 
much better than an absolute coinage of words. The sun is the 
source of all vitality, of all life, of all magnetism. It has been 
referred to for three or four thousand years as emblematic of the 
bettering of one's fortunes when rising, and of a lessening of the 
same when setting. For this reason the rising sun is helpful to 
you and buoyant; you turn your face to the west when some one's 
fortune is waning or setting. These ideas are merely symbolical. 
It is true at all times that friends should not be mutual or re- 
ciprocal; if so, one would look east for help and east to render help, 
thus developing a common complaint society, which could not 
succeed except under the most extraordinary circumstances. In 
every known case of success, one man has been the sole generous 
giver, and the other or his family has been the sole beneficiary. 
It is a great mistake to carry your woes to one who is waiting for 
you to get through the narration in order that he may tell his. 

The circle is maintained by the arrangement referred 
to, whereby you get help from the east, and give help to the west. 
The friend, then, who is assisted by yon. gets help from you. which 
is from the east to him. You are his east, and you are the west 
of the friend who is on your east. The closing of the circle should 
depend on your judgment and the decision of others who are con- 
nected with it. Thus, if A. looks east to ]>., and B. looks i 
C, and C. looks east to P., and D. looks east to A., the circle is 
completed, and can never be enlarged. It will grow narrow as 
death removes its members. By the system adopted by us there 
can be no breach that is not instantly filled. Thus, if C. should 
die. the circle would consist of A., B. and P.. and A. would look 
east to B. for help, B. would look to P.. and P. would look - s1 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF LARGESSE 453 

A. The same closing- up and narrowing of the circle would go on 
until the last one had gone. 

By way of mere review and discussion it may be well 
to state that there are certain essentials which must be observed in 
the formation of the Magnetic Circle, the failure to adhere to which 
will invariably.result in failure. Some of our reasoning may seem 
inefficient, because it is not understood; but we have watched the 
influences for many years, and have seen wherein the circle ha3 
failed to succeed. We are assured by such experiences and the 
laws that are known to underlie them, that the present essentials 
must be observed, while due latitude may be allowed in other 
respects. 

Solemnity. — The step is as solemn as any in life ; more so 
than marriage, for it protects marriage, home and family at a time 
when help is most needed; it is more solemn than any known com- 
pact, as it rules above them all in its efficaciousness. It is a rope 
of gold anchored to the present with surety beyond the grave. 

Slowness of selection. — It is the most serious of all mis- 
takes to make one in this matter. Magnetism seems to be endowed 
with an unseen and superhuman power that brings the right kind 
of persons together, as it does in courtship and marriage, for it 
draws ideals to each other often out of the unknown. In the past 
quarter of a century we have had no record or report of failure or 
error in any Magnetic Circle, where reciprocity or mutuality has 
been avoided, and but few even then. We have always advised, 
and still do advise, the utmost care in making the choice. Go slow, 
go very slow; do not deem it necessary to rush. In due time you 
will learn what a power this magnetism is. You will learn that it 
sways mankind as by the direct hand of God; and it is almost 
provable that the divine Master decrees such a compact. This you 
will say when you see the plan of making the Magnetic Circle. 
There certainly is a power above us that is present in every moment 
of life. 

In this connection some opinions may serve to help us 
in explaining the efficacy of the circle as a means of influence over 
lives that have entered and are entering it, although these were 
inspired to do so by personal instruction from the author rather 
than by books. A woman, who was a member of a circle of five, 
says: "I was three years making this circle; all women, and all in 
earnest, I can tell you. Since seeing the workings of it and the 

i 



454 



UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 



solemn purport of its meaning, I am convinced that it will revolu- 
tionize every human heart that it touches."' Says another woman: 
"A word from you in the last lecture was sufficient. It set me on 
fire. I formed a Magnetic Circle of three. I know it is too small, 
hut its influence extends to matters of health as well as to others, 
and we are sure to live long, if no accident occurs* What I most 
desire to say is this: I find the circle to he an inspiration toward 
everything that is heavenly. It is horn of a higher power than 
human." A man of the very highest social rank says: "I caught 
the idea at once. You have learned ere this how thoroughly I 
prize the lessons you gave to me in person; hut the idea of the Mag- 
netic Circle was the greatest of all. It took hold of me with such 
force that I could not get rid of it. I yielded to it. You know 
my zeal when your records will show you the many friends whom 
I have induced to take up this study under your direct supervision. 
We formed a Magnetic Circle of fourteen, probably the largest yet, 
and we had some difficulty in getting information of its comple- 
tion, so scrupulously did we observe the directions. There was not 
a flaw in the chain, not an imperfect link. I say this to confirm 
your statement that magnetism is a superhuman power, with an 
influence wielded directly by some divine hand. One proof of the 
assertion is seen in the lives of those who are in this circle. All 
have looked upon earthly existence more seriously, all are happier, 
all are looking heavenward with greater courage." A brief extract 
from the report of a wealthy man should appear here: "I am glad 
i went into the Magnetic Circle, for it is the best thing of earth." 
Another man writes: "I often wonder if those who are out of the 
circle can know what it does for those who are in. From the time 
I entered it, I had a feeling that some great being had taken me in 
his two big hands placed under the shoulders, and was lifting me 
up all the time. I find the influence a grand one always/' A 
clergyman says: "Your plan is worthy of the noblest following. 
I went into the circle with some fear of the results. I knew i: 
could do me no harm, but I thought it would produce no real good. 
Instantly I felt a power from above working in my soul, and I be- 
lieve you do not know half there is in it. I dare not call it in words 
what I -feel it to be." Another minister says: "I am convinced 
that the Magnetic Circle is an inspiration. It saves every man it 
embraces." One, who is a scientist of more than ordinary ability, 
writes: "I am in the Magnetic Circle, as you are aware: I find it 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF LARGESSE 455 

more of an advantage than you expressed, but 1 wish <«> corn 
error that doubtless has readied you a number of times from oth 
who may claim, as one of our members here does, that there is a 
divine power influencing the work and operation of the circle. I 
admit that the circle will in fact elevate a man morally as well 
hygienicall}', for the plan so purposes. On the other hand, I ac- 
count for the remarkable power of the circle in this wise: If a 
number of persons, all of the strongest magnetism, form a circle of 
influence, each sending a positive current always onward (cor- 
responding to your term 'east'), and a negative current always- 
backward (corresponding to your term, 'west'), there is enough 
magnetic energy, nervous telepathy and ether-vitality (to use simple- 
words) to produce the influence you set up in the arrangement of 
the interests involved." And another scientist, who saw the fore- 
going opinion, without knowing the name of the man who thoug 
he had discovered the true secret, answered him as follows: 
cannot fully agree with him. The more I live, the more am I 
satisfied that there are powers and influences around us and over 
us that take special pride in shaping the career of a human beii 
Never till I joined the Magnetic Circle did I know what blessiii _ 
can come from a close relationship to the one great force that rule* 
the universe. Give it a wide scope in this world, and everything: 
else will fall before it." A politician, who left that abject profes- 
sion for a better one, but who knew men as only politicians can„ 
said: "I joined the Magnetic Circle here. It purified me to the* 
extent of driving me out of politics. I have seen rings and com- 
binations of effectiveness, but none that can compare in the p< 
sibilities of power with the circle. Those who are not in it are not 
aware of what it means. It can sweep anything wrong out of exist- 
ence." This compels us to relate one incident that was reported to> 
us from a very large city. 

Perhaps the most extensive use ever made of the- 
power which dwells in the Magnetic Circle, as well as the widest 
departure from the intended use of it, is seen in the following- 
report: "One of our circle was unjustly sued by a corporation 
whose witnesses were hirelings, and whose lawyers were brilliant 
but unscrupulous. By the combination of money, skill and perjury,, 
the case was sure to go against us. Under the liberties of the Mag 
in tic Circle, we were allowed to lay the honest facts honestly befoi 
"the judge or any juror, but none happened to be in our circle. It 



456 UXIYERSAL MAGXETISM 

so happened that there were side influences set to work, which I 
cannot narrate here; but they went to the mark. We saw the cause 
of justice triumphing at last, and we are glad of what we did" 
The process actually employed was made known to us. 

The Cost. — There is no expense whatever attached to the 
formation of a Magnetic Circle, nor to anything connected with it, 
either before or after its establishment. The plan, containing the 
constitution and all the rules and laws, will be provided by us free 
of charge. The power and purpose of the circle are so great that 
no reason should stand in the way of the foundation of one sooner 
or later. It is our intention to see the civilized world honeycombed 
with them. They are so arranged that one circle can never conflict 
with another. All work separately, but toward the same ends. 

The Sex. — The men must remain in their own circles ; the 
women in theirs. The honoring of the tenderer sex is carefully 
looked to, and no greater tribute can ever be paid to mothers, wives, 
sisters and daughters than they receive from the actual operation 
of the Magnetic Circle. 

Strength. — No person can be admitted to a Magnetic Circle 
who does not test seventy per cent, magnetic, according to the 
methods stated. It is not worth while to ally yourself in any way 
with one who is a weakling. By this is meant one who cannot 
stand up to the requirements of the principles in the Estate of the 
Will, to which attention should be given daily. A chain of strength 
must have every link of giant power. You would feel discontented 
and unhappy if you were to know or imagine that your ally east 
was not able to look after your personal needs in time of distress. 

Secrecy. — He who is afraid of a promise to keep his own 
affairs to himself is a weakling. Most men, especially those who 
have attained success, know full well the value of privacy in all 
important undertakings, in business as well as in government or 
'other matters; and as far as our records show, the only persons who 
have hesitated to take the pledges of secrecy are clerks at small 
salaries, or weak women. The very essence of life, of nature and of 
creation is within the knowledge of the individual or the God that 
has given it authorship. The pitiful Dreyfus case of France orig- 
inated in his arrest under the charge of giving information to 
other government. In war, the power of secrecy is often the salva- 
tion of country, of life and of home. Every business moves along 
by just this principle. Inventors gain or lose by it. An invention 



REALM OF Till. E8TAT& OF LARGE& 457 

that earned millions of dollars was Ip^t to $£ real inventor ; 
canse his wife told the secret to a friend, who told it to her husband, 
and the latter developed it first. TJiere, are times when the world 
are given the knowledge, although the Creator of this earth is still 
wrapped in the profoundest secrecy. For some good reason there 
are thousands of facts hidden from man. The operations of the 
Magnetic Circle would be very futile if they were done openly. We 
adopt what is best, and no more. Even in so simple a thing as 
ordinary magnetism, if you notify a person that it is your intention 
to magnetize him, you will make no progress whatever, until you 
disabuse his mind of the knowledge or supposition. 

Probation. — It is advisable to take allies on probation for 
a year or two. They are not permitted to enter the circle until the 
final choice is made and the compacts sealed, but they can be tried 
in every way that will put their value to the test. As many as 
twelve probationers have at times been selected; meetings have been 
held for experimenting, and from this number the person most in 
harmony has been chosen, always, of course, with his consent. 
Cards for associate practice may be obtained by application, as 
hereafter stated. 

Who should make circles. — This is a matter that must 
be considered in the light of past experience. Where two men are 
partners in business, and are certain of working together in har- 
mony, they may form the alliance, provided it is certain that their 
wives or other members of the two families have no jealousies or 
envies toward the partners of their husbands or heads of the fam- 
ilies. A minister may select a minister on the one side, and a 
church official or business man on the other. Friends, who are not 
likely to come in competition with each other, or to be made jealous 
from any cause then in sight, are suited to membership in the cir- 
cle. Women should remember that their own frailties are envy, 
suspicion and jealousy, and should seek alliances that will not tend 
to breed these morbid feelings. 

Who should go east and west. — When you find an ally 
who is seventy per cent, magnetic, and who is willing to enter the 
circle, it is the duty of both of you to ascertain who is the more 
magnetic. This is generally agreed upon without difficulty. The 
purpose is to select the stronger to go east, because he is to beco: 
your helper. To make the circle a powerful band of energies, with 
the positive currents all going east, and the negative currents all 



458 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

going west, it is essential that this difference exist. We have never 
known a case where the judgment of both parties was not correct 
in this selection; but there are some instances where they cannot 
agree, and the procedure then is as follows: Have a helper to 
manage for yon. He will place yon both in a very dimly lighted 
room in the evening, and completely blindfold a young person of 
the opposite sex under fourteen years of age and over nine. Thus, 
if two men are to make the test, the helper should be a man, and 
the blindfolded person should be a little girl. If two women are 
to make the test, the helper should be a woman and the blindfolded 
person a little boy. Other persons may be allowed in the adjoin- 
ing room, but the door must be closed. The child should be one 
of the better kind mentally, and not of a frothy nature. The two 
persons in the test are to be placed in positions at least nine feet 
apart, seated in chairs close to the wall of the room, so as to leave 
the center clear. They may be diagonally opposite if desired, but 
not diametrically opposite to each other, as the influences, even if 
not balanced, are apt to produce a deadlock. They may be on two 
sides or on the same side, but at least nine feet away. The blind- 
folded person enters with the helper, goes to some place near the 
center of the room, turns around once, takes three steps, turns 
around once more, takes two steps, turns around once, then takes 
one step and stands still until the helper claps his hands three 
times, whereupon, at the third clapping, both persons sitting say 
simultaneously: "Come here." The child then takes three steps 
and stands still. The blindfold is removed, and the distance is 
measured. The person nearer the child wins. This experiment is 
repeated six times more, making seven in all. If there is a closeness 
of influence, one person will win four out of the seven and is to he 
on the east of the other person in the Magnetic Circle. In each 
of the experiments the two persons are to take different positions. 
The only allowable variation is to permit the child to go the full 
distance after the call, "Come here." If this call is not made by 
both persons simultaneously, it is not valid, and the experiment 
must be recommenced. 

How the members are known. — It is not permissible 
for one member to know all who are in the Magnetic Circle, as that 
would prevent the accomplishment of some of the most desired 
ends. A. knows who is on his east and who is on his west. "When 
the one has been chosen, he should see to getting the other as soon 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF LARGE 8 SE 459 

as circumstances will permit. Then hie ally easi musl select one 
east, [f the experiments fail, fie should Beek to induce the friend 
to go to the wot of A. or to A./s west, or else to go into a Dew 
circle. As conditions and moods change, the experiments may in- 
dicate different ly at one time from another, while the mutual agn 
ment soon settles the question. Ii is also a very easy matter for 
cue person to acquire a greater percentage of magnetism than an- 
other by devoting more time and energy to it. Then there con 
the fact that two persons hold the relation of positive and negati 
to each other, who are perhaps both positive to a third person, or 
Loth negative to him. Individualities are powers in themselves. 
When A. has selected B. on his easl and C. on his west, he may or 
may not wait for a further extension of the circle, for it would 
then close with B. east of A., with C. east of B., and with A. ei 
of C., for A. cannot select C. on his wesl without the consent of 
B. on his east. Most circles go beyond this numher. A circle of 
three or of four persons is called weak, of five or six is called mod- 
erate, and of seven or more is called strong. A. has a right to know 
who is on the east of B., but he cannot know who is on the east of 
D. B. has a right to know who is on the east of D., but not who 
is* on the east of E. It is also true that B. cannot select his 
ally without the consent of A., nor can C. select his east ally with- 
out the consent of B., hut the line is drawn at tins distance in each 
case. On the other side, A. has a right to know who is west of his 
west ally, and his consent is necessary. It will tints be seen that A. 
knows two on his east and two on his west, a total of live known to 
him; and, as this knowledge moves around in a circle, when there 
are but five in it, all are known. In a circle of six. one is always 
unknown: in a circle of seven, two are always unknown, and so <>n. 
As five at least must be congenial to each other, and this harmony 
of five works around a circle ever changing and advancing, it can- 
not be possible that there would be discord in the largest circle. 

Cards of associate practice are issued on application. 

The form of asking for them is as follows: 

Application for Card of Associate Practice. 



"To Ralston University, Washington, "D. C, 

"I own in my name a copy of the volume Universal Magi 
ism, and my class numher is . I am acquainted with 



460 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

M , who is also an owner of said volume, and whose 

class number is . We desire to meet for practice and ex- 
periment, and wish to have a Card issued to us for such purpose. 
I pledge my honor that I will, as long as I live, keep the volume of 
Universal Magnetism for my exclusive use, and will not show, ] oan, 
give or sell it, nor divulge its contents, or any part thereof, to any 
other person or persons. And I further state that, from the time 
I received said volume to the present moment I have kept my 
original pledge of privacy in respect to said volume. My name and 
full address are P 

Each person must make a similar application. X) 
two persons in possession of this volume can confer together in any 
wise in relation to the same, except upon application in the way 
stated. The inquiry is often made, why a wife should have a copy 
of this book apart from her husband. The answer is the same as 
in case a man and his wife were going to Europe on the trans- 
Atlantic steamer; each must have a ticket, and pay the price of 
the passage. The book of Universal Magnetism is not for read- 
ing, but for study; and it should be studied and referred to daily. 
Many marginal notes are made in it by the owner, and these 
reflect the feelings, thoughts and experiences of such person. 
[For this, as well as for many other reasons, every individual 
who hopes to attain success in the art should possess a copy of the 
work. Besides this, we receive reports from members, and often 
follow them in their progress; and if it is right for one person to 
take a partnership interest with another, it would be right for a 
hundred. The charge of fifty dollars is very low, and even this may 
be reduced to twenty-five in the way stated in the first volume; and, 
under other conditions, it may be obtained free.] It will be found 
important to regard the work as individual and personal. 

The constitution of the Magnetic Circle is furnished to 
any person who sends the application therefor, enclosing the same 
pledges that are given in the application for the card for asso- 
ciate practice. It must be borne in mind that all these matters are 
additions to the volume, that they are voluntarily offered, and may 
be withdrawn at any time, and that no obligation to give or to 
receive them exists in fact until proper application has been made 
and accepted. Before such steps are taken, there must be some 
other individuals in sight, as prospective allies east and west. This 
is the condition precedent. Then there must be the evidence of 



REALM OF THE B&TATE OF LARGESSE 461 

eoltite i'iinu>iin>^ in the wm-L a desire to attain the" very highest 
rank in human power. For the convenience of our students we 
append the form of 

\|)|)lk(iNon for Constitution of Magneto Circle. 

''To Ralston University, Washington* D. G. 

"I own in my name a copy of the volume, Universal Magnet- 
ism, and my class number is . 1 wish to obtain the Con- 
stitution and Eules for organizing a Magnetic Circle, and hereby 
apply for the same, to be sent to my address, as below. I pledge 
my honor that I will, as long as I live, keep the volume of Universal 
Magnetism for my exclusive use, and will not show, loan, give or 
sell it, nor divulge its contents, or any part thereof, to any other 
person or persons. And I further state that, from the time I re- 
ceived said volume to the present moment, I have kept my original 
pledge of privacy in respect to said volume. My name and full 
address are /' 

We would request that these forms of application be written 
on paper eight inches wide and ten and a half inches long, for con- 
venience in filing. 

i § 

Every person enters the realm of largesse who tests 
seventy per cent, magnetic. 

This is the 509th Ralston Principle. The law involved herein 
is of the very greatest importance. We cannot deny that some 
persons have been endowed by habit with the degree of magnetism 
sufficient to give them entrance to this estate. The fruits and 
bounty come naturally, because there is no ceremony whereby they 
are announced or bestowed. Those who are magnetic but unsuc- 
cessful in life, or in some of its departments, are erratic and un- 
certain; and we have shown in the earlier pages of this book that 
their energies are scattered in con fusion. No such person could 
test more than thirty per cent, magnetic. Even the most brilliant 
of the eccentric characters of genius are never thirty per cent, in;; 
netic. 



462 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

The process whereby the test is made is very simple. 
It will be set forth at this time in its easiest form, and what further 
steps are needed will appear, as light comes, in ways that are not 
properly within the province of this page. We never lose sight 
of any student of this power. It is sufficient that we explain fully 
the process of ascertaining the percentage, so that allies may be 
selected for the Magnetic Circle. It is for no other purpose that 
we are discussing the present principle. The system of reckoning 
a percentage differs from what might have been expected, for we 
allow no fractions. Each item must be complete, or else valueless. 
Thus, if ten per cent, is not made in muscular control, nothing is 
to be count ed/although. as high as nine may be attained; and this 
rule follows all through. 

1. Ten per cent, for Muscular Control.— This is based 
upon the exercises of the first volume. The reckoning runs through 
the whole month, and may begin at any date and end thirty full 
days thereafter. By muscular control at this place is meant the 
ability to control the whole body at any time desired. We shall 
depart from the uses required in the first volume, and sum up the 
exercises in the following manner, with the limitations placed on 
them here for present purposes only. 

Exercise. — During the thirty days, stand perfectly still 
four times a day for every day of the thirty, and five minutes at a 
time. The five minutes' trial must be at least three hours from any 
preceding or subsequent trial. The first is best made in the morn- 
ing, after being dressed, on arising; the second at noon, the third 
in the late afternoon, and the fourth before retiring. To stand 
perfectly still, it is recommended in this place that the heels be 
placed together, the feet both turned out; the arms and hands 
hang at the sides, and the face look to an object on a level, ten or 
more feet away. Half way from the object and the position, it is 
advisable to hang a heavy key attached to a white thread. When 
the thread is perfectly still, take your position, and see that the 
body does not sway at all. This will be detected by the departure 
of the thread from the line of the object or some small place on it. 
When you have such control of your bodv that you are able to stand 
perfectly still for the required thirty days, five minutes at a time, 
and four times daily, you may allow the percentage of ten. This 
will include one hundred and twenty trials. Five failures or part 
failures may occur and not detract from the total count of ten. 



REALM OF TEE ESTATE OF LARGESSE 463 

Thus, if at any portion of the month it is nol possible to come up 
to the requirements during the five minutes, or if the body sways 
a part of a minute even for a few seconds only, t he trial is a failui 

and five of these collected in thirty days would be allowed as a 
margin of failure, while the sixth would destroy the whole' ten 
per cent. The thirty days must he consecutive, and not collected 
over a longer period. More than four trials a day may be made, if 
there are three hours between the successful ones. If the exerci 
is found to be difficult, it must be remembered that anything worth 
accomplishing comes not easy. The results of this one experiment 
alone are of extraordinary value in every possible way. A very 
wealthy lady reported to us that it had cured her of all nervous- 
ness, for which she had previously paid over five thousand dollars 
with no benefit whatever, and she said: "This one part of your 
book is surely worth that amount to me." It, of itself, generate- a 
great power of magnetism as well. 

Ten per cent, for Nervous Control. — Take a sheet of 
paper not smaller than eight inches wide and ten or eleven inches 
long; hold it between the thumb and fingers, placed at one corner 
of the paper, extending the arm so that the elbow is free from the 
body and has nothing to rest upon. It is perhaps to hold the arm 
out at nearly full length. The paper must not tremble at the 
opposite upper diagonal corner. This should be tried four times 
daily during the same thirty days already referred to, and the paper 
must be held unwavering for one minute at each trial. It is suffi- 
cient if the minute of perfect steadiness be secured at the trial, so 
that the latter may be longer than a minute. More than five failures 
in the month will destroy or invalidate the whole ten per cent., and 
result in a record of nothing. 

Ten per cent, for Automatic Control. — The word 
"automatics" is used to describe the little motions that are being 
continually thrown off by a person who leaks magnetism. It may 
be due to nervousness, and is so closely associated to that defect 
in both cause and result, that the two are under the influence each 
of the other. Yet nervous control, in the meaning indicated here, 
is not the same exactly; and it is known that one will not com- 
pletely eradicate the other. The present exercise requires that 
you go the full thirty days already referred to, and in the same 
period, with a perfect record as to automatics. When alone, do not 
take any position that is awkward, ungainly or lacking in refine- 



464 rXITERSAL MAGXETISM 

ment and elegance: nor throw of! anv action or motion that is not 
necessary to the expression of some idea intended by you. Do not 
commit any breach of the rules or requirements that are set forth 
in a preceding realm of this volume, in which the matter is fully 
dealt with. What is applicable to moments of solitude is all the 
more necessary when others are present. No person should reserve 
his best conduct for strangers or rare acquaintances, but should 
show full respect for his nearest friends and his family. To win 
the ten per cent, under this requirement, you must make no mo- 
tion of the body, of the head, arms, hands, fingers, eye-lids, feet, 
knees or other part, except what may be necessary and intended. 
In other words, make no useless motion. It is allowable to use the 
lids in winking to protect the eyeball, and to moisten it. Nature 
does this almost rhythmically. What is called automatic winking 
is the constant action of the lid when looking at any person or 
object. If the thirty days referred to can be lived so carefully that, 
alone or before others, you do not give way to these little motions 
that so quickly destroy magnetism, you may record ten per cent. 
No failures are allowed for a margin in this line of control. The 
whole month may, and should be, perfect in such respects. 

Ten per cent, for Eye Control. — This requires that you 
practice with some person who is already seventy per cent, mag- 
netic, or nearly so. If you do not know of any such person, take 
your time; you will surely find one sooner or later, for the numbers 
who are interested in this line of study will surprise you. The 
present test is intended only to enable you to procure a suitable 
ally east or west in the Magnetic Circle, and if no one is in sight 
or in prospect, the test is not needed. By the time you find such 
possible allies, or probationers, you will easily find one with whom 
you can make the special test of eye-control; and then it will be 
time enough for you to engage in the present exercise. Having 
found one of the same sex as yourself, who has tested seventy per 
cent, magnetic, or nearly so, go into a room that is not too bright; 
have all the light at one side or overhead, and clear the table, 
chairs or other furniture away, so as to leave space for walking. 
The room should be not less than sixteen feet wide, and twenty 
would be better. Stand apart against the walls. Face each other. 
It is known that, when you look a person in the eye. you see but 
one eye directly, although you see it with your two eyes. You 
cannot look at both eyes of a person at the same time, for it is im- 



REALM OF TEE ESTATE OF LARGESSE 465 

possible to make a focus so wide as that. Look in the right eye of 
your opponent, fixing your gaze on the pupil of the ball, and never 
lose sight of it. Walk slowly to the center of the room, each say- 
ing mentally, "I am your master;" and, when met, shake hands 
warmly, still looking at the eye. The focus is constantly chang- 
ing, which will severely test the power of the gaze while tending 
to break the magnetic control. As soon as you have shaken hands, 
using, of course, the right hands, retrace the steps by going back- 
ward to the wall, and saying mentally, "I am compelling you tc* 
leave me." The uncertainty as to when the wall will be reached, 
causes a tendency to fluctuate the gaze; to strike the wall with the 
heel or back will jar the gaze so that the power will be easily 
broken. A very magnetic person will know where the wall is bj 
the sensation of its presence, and will experience no trouble what- 
ever. As soon as the wall is touched, which should be by scarcely 
perceptible approach, the two persons should start toward each 
other again, each making the same mental assertion, "I am your 
master." On meeting, they should again shake hands, and retrace 
their steps, changing the mental assertion to the words, "I am com- 
pelling you to leave me." The effect of this change of thought, 
if magnetic, as it undoubtedly will be, cannot be described in words. 
The change is at once seen in the altered dilation of the eye-pupil 
and iris; and. even an observer sending some distance away, if of 
acute vision, can easily detect it. This change of the mind- 
thought also produces a peculiar power over the other person, a i 
if either of the contestants is much superior, the gaze will be dis- 
turbed and perhaps broken. Where there is great disparity, the* 
inferior party will change countenance either by a flush or taking 
on a blank gaze, as seen in instances where the memory is for the 
moment a vacuity. It is not often that the eyes are made to drop 
in a contest of this kind, for a pugnacious obstinacy will cause 
person to stare by the use of a parallel gaze, which is used in medi- 
tation or brown study. Such a gaze enables an empty and un- 
magnetic mind to look at any person or object for an hour without 
taxing the vitality. This experiment should be continued until 
both persons have advanced and retired five times as stated. A 
break of the gaze destroys the experiment, and no percentage is 
allowable in favor of the person defeated, while the other rei 
the full percentage of ten under the conditions stated herein. Whi i 
the five advances and retirements have been made, the fust trial 



466 ; l ~ UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

• 

is ended. A rest of ten minutes or more should follow, and the 
same experiment in full should be repeated. Then another rest, 
and repetition. This will give three trials on the same occasion, 
and there must be one occasion per week for each of the four weeks 
in the month. It is not advisable to allow other persons in the 
room. If any of the trials should fail, another may be substituted 
on the same occasion, so that there are three perfect trials, not 
closer together in time than ten minutes, and all successive, with- 
out failures between. Two or more meetings may be held the same 
week, in case of failure in any one; but there must be one meeting 
that is successful in each of four weeks. The total of a complete 
success gives a percentage of ten. 

Ten per cent, for Health. — It is necessary that the diet 
and all matters connected with the body's condition shall be per- 
fectly controlled during the thirty days referred to, and this must 
occur in the same thirty days. There must be no headache, no 
pain, no colds, no malady of any kind in the time stated. We 
claim that magnetism is able to expel all pain and sickness, as will 
be seen in the next realm of this volume. 

Ten per cent, for Mental Control. — During the same 
thirty days, if you are strong enough to control your thoughts as 
they come in and go out of the mind, and your words, deeds and 
feelings, as far as these are the prey of the thoughts; then you will 
win the percentage stated. There is no margin for failure. The 
whole month must present a clean record. The greatest difficulty 
will be found in keeping certain unwelcome thoughts from the 
mind. This experiment is so hard that no living person can suc- 
ceed in it who is not highly endowed with magnetism: and it is so 
easy that no one need fail in it who is really seventy per cent, mag- 
netic. There are many records of success, so we are sure you can 
master it in time. Perfectly control the thoughts that enter your 
mind, and perfectly control the utterances of lip or pen. Keep 
your feelings in subjection to your mind. 

Ten per cent, for Smoothness. — This refers to that 
method of living which avoids friction in every way, and extends 
from the smallest details of the day up to the largest actions of 
life. In a physical sense, the smoothest motions are the most mag- 
netic; no jar in walking, no extra heavy tread, no force or weight 
on the heel, no jerk or sudden start; but a smooth, firm, easy, yet 
dignified carriage of every portion of the body from the lei - 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF LARGE 88E 467 

the greatest. Here magnetism is most potent. Then the day- 
should proceed in smoothness from the moment of awakening to the 
moment of falling asleep; whether it is in the physical, mental, emo- 
tional or other department of our being. 

Ten per cent, for Moral Cleanliness. — During the same 
period of thirty days there should he no lie thought, acted or 
uttered; there should be no deception, direct, indirect, excusable or 
otherwise, practiced. If you do not know what grandeur of courage 
comes from perfect whiteness of soul, and what magnetism floods 
the nature when the heart, mind and body are morally clean, just 
try this for thirty days. You may enjoy the thought of relaxation 
afterward, but the strength that is attained in the reality of this 
whiteness is beyond compare or measurement. No margin is 
allowed for failures. We have insisted upon this part of the test 
as essential, because the heart of a lion in the enormous power of 
magnetism is felt by those who succeed in it. It is of course known 
that no person is perfect in morality; no one can claim to be; but 
that means all the time. Try moral perfection for thirty days. 
Make every life about you happy, live without the stain of sin upon 
thought or deed, and rise in stature to an inestimable height. 

Ten per cent, for Control of Irritability. — What is 
known by irritability is fully explained in the realm that discusses 
all the enemies of peace. It is set forth in the third estate of this 
volume, and elaborated in the fourth. The thirty days must pro- 
ceed from beginning to end without any exhibition whatever of 
irritability, especially when you are alone. There can be hardly 
any hope of a high order of magnetism if the least taint of irri- 
tability is present in the system. Do not confound this with the 
abnormalism described below. 

Ten per cent, for Control of Abnormalism. — The two 
chief matters embraced in abnormalism are worry and superstition. 
As to the latter, a clear-cut breaking loose from all phases of this 
inheritance of the dark ages should be made as stated in the realm 
of peace, which is the fourth estate of this volume. We use the 
words realm and estate as interchangeable, as they both mean the 
same thing. Nothing should be allowed to cause you to worry or 
have a depressing anxiety for the future. We cannot take the time 
here to repeat the reasons for this, as they have been fully told 
in other pages of this work. To win this ten per cent., it is nee 
sary to believe and to feel that all worrying, all Buperstition and 



468 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

all depression have been permanently driven out of the system. 
If any remain, yon cannot allow yourself the ten per cent.; and no 
part of the same can be recorded, as it must be ten or nothing in 
each of the parts. 

Here are ten opportunities for winning a record of ten 
per cent. To succeed in all would give you absolute perfection, or 
one hundred, and you would be at once a giant. You are your 
own judge, for there is nothing to tempt you to deceive yourself, 
and no reason why you should not be perfectly fair and honest. 
The chances for error are so slight that you will not make them. 
Any seven of the ten will pass you into the estate of largesse, from 
which you will never depart. Once in, you are able to remain. 
All private history of this art confirms the statement. You realize 
a wonderful security of position, a remarkable self-reliance, and a 
most potent force of character, from which a fall never seems 
likely; the suggestion of it does not even enter your mind. 

Having won the seventy per cent., aided by this vol- 
ume, you are already in the estate of largesse, and you may claim 
an ally east or one west, as you choose, under the plan previously 
stated. Such allies are to be procured by you, if none should seek 
you. Your influence over others is to be great enough to draw 
them to you. If unmarried, your ideal in wedlock may be so drawn, 
as stated in the book, "The Two Sexes/ 5 But no Magnetic Circle 
can include a wife or a husband, as the plan of defending a home 
after the death of one or the other would be defeated. If the thirty 
days' experiment fails, it can be tried again in some other month. 
It is full of difficulties; but once over, they are over for good. The 
grand results that follow a month of such effort more than com- 
pensate for the time and attention required. 



"So hush, — I will give you this kaf to keep, — 
Sec, I shut it inside the sweet cold hand. 
There, that is our secret ! go to sleep ; 

)'on will wake, and remember, and understand." 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF LARQEBBE 469 

§r «? 

i i 

No person can fall from the estate of largesse. 

This is the 510th Ealston Principle. We have referred to this 
law 'in the last paragraph, and there we showed its bearing upon 
the connection it had with the office of ally. This knowledge 
grows in importance the more it is recognized. There is something 
satisfying in the highest degree in the fact that an ally, once 
selected, is sure to be true to the end. The fact is not the deduction 
of a theory, nor the assumption of belief; it has been proved over 
and over again in the lives of those who have adopted the system 
in its full seriousness and solemnity. What has been once done 
can be done again; what has repeated itself time and again without 
failure is sure to be repeated further under the same conditions. 

If a person is not willing to follow the plan as stated, 
and to follow it with absolute faithfulness to detail, then failure 
may be looked for. Our students do not depart from these rules. 
They are glad to get them and to abide by them. The reward, the 
bounty, the largesse, is worth the labor and the zeal required. You, 
who have a family, should enter the Magnetic Circle, and should 
secure an ally that cannot be lost to you. See that he tests seventy 
per cent, magnetic, and that he is east or west as the conditions 
require. He will not prove you false. He will be known by others 
of whom you may not be aware. Once in the estate of largesse, 
he cannot fall out. A new light will come to him. New powers are 
felt. This you can prove in yourself, for it is not improbable that 
you will enter that realm very soon after you read this volume and 
understand it. We recommend that it be carefully and slowly 
perused three times, every word being digested and assimilated 
in your nature. 

With the conscious power that follows the attainment 
of the high percentage, you will proceed to other victories. Tn the 
Magnetic Circle there will be many opportunities for putting into 
use the principles of this book. It is not alone by the ten tests 
named that you prove your position or gain admission to the estate 
of largesse; the present volume is always at work, helping you if 
you are always studying it. All powers about you will be on the 
increase. More interesting, perhaps, than any oilier matters in 



470 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

this line of development are the special powers of the next realm. 
One piece of advice should be continually iterated: Do not depend 
upon any one part of this book for help and progress, but keep at 
the whole of it; it must be studied as an entire work. There are 
many other ways of testing the magnetic percentage; we presented 
the most available at this stage of the study. Whatever else is to 
be made known will come in the form of other works that will be 
freely furnished; also in the form of personal assistance at such 
times and in such ways as we volunteer it, in case there is deemed 
a necessity for the same after the passing of years. We make no 
obligation to do either; but, as in times past we have never lost 
sight of our students, so in the future we shall help them by what- 
ever influences are most suited and most potent. These matters 
should not be stated by you to others, who are not owners of the 
present work, for they may regard it as an inducement to procure 
the book, which would taint the whole relationship with a com- 
mercial interest; and this we seek to avoid. Our present purpose 
is to encourage you to gain all the powers you can, and thereby 
become better fitted to acquire more. 



"Betwixt the' [Njorth wind and the Sun arose 
Jl contest, which would soonest of bis clothes 
Strip a war fa ring clown, so runs the tale. 
First, ^Boreas blows an almost Thraeiau gale, 
Thinking, perforce, to steal the man's capote: 
He loosed it not; but as the cold wind smote 
cMore sharp/v, tighter round him drew the folds, 
*And sheltered by a crag his station holds. 
"But now the Sun at first peered gently forth, 
tAnd thawed the chills of the uncanny \Korth ; 
Then in their turn his beams more amply plied, 
Till sudden heat the dozen's endurance tried ; 
Stripping himself, away his cloak he flung: 
The Sun from "Boreas thus a triumph wrung." 



REALM MINI 




" 1-jOW sweet and clear and taint and low 
The airy tlnkllngs come and go, 
Like chlmJngs from the far-off lower, 
Ov patterlngs of an April shower, 
And old-time friends and twilight plays 
And starry nights and sunny days 
Come trooping up the misty ways." 




THE ESTATE 

or 

Special Powers 



« „ 



MUSIC, when soft voices die, 

Vibrates in the memory,— 
Odors, when the violets sicken, 
Live within the sense they quicken. 
Rose-leaves, when the rose is dead, 
Are heaped for the beloved's bed; 
And so thy thoughts, when thou art done, 
Love itself shall slumber on." 

(171) 






"r\ bid the morning stars combine 

? To match the chorus clear and fine, 
That rippled lightly down the line — 
ft cadence of celestial rhyme, 
The language of that cloudless clime, 
To which their shining hands kept time!" 



(< 



\ND the bald blear scull of the desert 
With glowing mountains is crowned, 
That, burning like molten iewels, 
Circle its temples round. 
I will lie and dream of the past time, 
fteons of thought away, 
ftnd through the jungle of memory 
Loosen my fancy to play." 



(at-:) 



THE ESTATE 



or 



Special Powers 




\ 



" \\'D thus she moves In render light, 
Tl\e purest ray, where all is bright, 
Serene, and sweet; 
ftnd sheds a graceful Influence round, 
Thai hallows e'en the very ground 
Beneath \\cr feet!" 



I 




OPPORTUNITIES for progress and self-improvement 
are never lacking in the study of advanced magnetism. As 
we enter upon another realm we find ourselves confronted 
by many new phases of the subject. Here we come to con- 
sider the special powers that are acquired through this art. Some 
of them may be classified as follows: 

Power over audiences. 

Power in the ministry. 

Power over juries. 

Power in the medical profession. 

Power in business. 



474 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

Power in social relations. 

Power over the opposite sex. 

Power in temptation. 

Power in self-cures. 

Power in certain cures of other persons. 

Power over the imagination. 

These subjects will receive attention in this realm ; and, 
in an incidental way, others also will be discussed, for there is no 
limit to the extent and variations of the influence which is derived 
from magnetism. In the outset it is well to bear certain points in 
mind. In the first place, the power referred to in each phase is 
not derived from this realm, but is founded upon the general fund 
of magnetism which is obtained by the use of the first volume, and 
is further enlarged by the preceding realms of the present book. 
Nothing stands alone in this art. You should already be well en- 
dowed with the power if you hope to test the uses of it in this 
realm. Much of the matter is descriptive, and is intended to ex- 
plain uses. 

Much importance is given to the study of oratory, and 
the reasons therefor are partly stated. They are so numerous as to 
be almost without limit; so we content ourselves with presenting 
those that seem to possess the chief power. The meaning of the 
word oratory is certainly misunderstood by the public. The com- 
mon idea is that any person who has something to say can say it. 
This is far from being true. It is not the fact in more than one 
case in a hundred; and in that case the chances are that the in- 
dividual will fail to gain his point because of his inability to say 
what he had to say in the most effective way. If any person who 
has something to say can say it, the fact might remain that he 
would not know how to say it. The same thing spoken by one 
person may have a thousandfold more weight if uttered by another. 



" To me men arc for what they arc — 
Tier wear no masks with inc. 
) never sickened at the jar 
Of ill-tuned flattery" 



REALM OF TEE ESTATE OF SPECIAL POWERS 475 

I 5n I 

Human speech is the faculty that most distinguishes 
mankind from lesser creation. 

This is the 511th Kalston Principle. Under this law we pro- 
pose to come directly to the subject of power over audiences. 
Speech is articulation, when we refer to it as a faculty not pos- 
sessed by animals. The latter are able to make all vowels, simple 
and compound, but do not have the power of expressing consonants. 
What connection there is between mere consonants and mind, is 
not easily seen; but as these articulations enable sound to be marked 
off into syllables and words, it is very likely that they concur with 
the development of thought. 

It is when speech rises to its height in oratory that its 
effectiveness is seen. The uselessness of attempting to measure its 
value by reading it may be found by comparing the occasion with 
the report made of it. It is not language, nor words, nor phrases, 
nor felicitations that give greatness to oratory; it is the manner of 
delivery. The addresses of Eufus Choate are very dry reading, but 
their effect when spoken was marvelous, charming and fascinating; 
so much so that no person could resist his persuasive power. The 
same is true of Edward Everett and all others who have been great 
as orators. Biography makes this point clear in the life of every 
such man. The claim that the press is mightier than the orator 
is true as far as the rank and file of the public speakers are con- 
cerned; but, as between the most powerful influence of the greatest 
newspapers and the tremendous sway of the true orator, there is 
as much difference as between a mass of mud and a sun of diamonds. 

This disparaging discrepancy has been seen illustrated 
in the recent history of America. In one issue the combined in- 
fluence of all the New York papers was exerted in one direction, 
while four speeches of ringing magnetism were personally delivered 
to less than twenty thousand voters; yet the power was felt in them, 
was transmitted to their friends and to the public, until the press 
was snubbed and ignored in settling the issue. One speech in 
Boston, some years ago, so aroused the public mind that the unit r] 
shouts of the excited press could do nothing but call down derisive' 
laughter on the editors' heads. This has been proved true in sim- 




476 



UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 



ilar tests in every city and locality where the public have had an 
opportunity to measure the two values. At its best, the press never 
commands the respect of any portion of the public; and, now that 
its office is on a par with the dime novel, it is foolhardy to under- 
take any comparison with true oratory. We do not include in this 
term the ranting efforts of the multitude of speakers who believe 
themselves gifted, as they are not really orators. 



| 5J2 



The true orator speaks from the sub-conscious 
faculty. 

This is the 512th Ealston Principle. Not one person in a 
thousand is gifted in true oratory. He must not only be qualified 
in vocabulary, mind and fluency of composition to address his 
audience, but he must possess a large fund of magnetism; and this 
fund must be great enough to open up the sub-conscious faculty 
for him, so that his ideas may be there created and flow out of that 
realm. 

When such a speaker is addressing an audience it is 
very easy to tell when he passes over the line that separates the 
conscious from the sub-conscipus mind. A peculiar sensation is 
felt among the listeners; something that is real while it lasts, and 
soon becomes evanescent like a dream after the occasion has passed 
away. Many things that seem clear while being stated, are lost 
to memory a few hours later. The pencil is the best preserver of 
them. Some speakers open their addresses with the sub-conscious 
faculty, and hold their audience from the very moment of be- 
ginning, while others gradually approach this faculty, and pass 
into it in the course of a few minutes. Such an orator as Gough 
would require about ten or fifteen minutes before entering the 
realm; his harsh, husky, uninteresting voice would then become 
rich, resonant and mellow, holding his auditors for two hours on 
an average, while an ordinary sermon would tire in fifteen or twenty 
minutes. Beecher generally began in the sub-conscious faculty, so 
that his first few minutes were as interesting as the middle of his 
speech. Gladstone sometimes failed to enter this realm, and, when 
out of it, his efforts were often ridiculed; when in it. he was able 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF SPECIAL POWER 

to convince his enemies. Disraeli had similar unevennesa of p<w 
Daniel Webster, in his later days, was totally unable to speak from 
this faculty, and bis appearance in Boston was described as thai of 

a "magnificent wreck." There is a l< bsoe to be Learned in thi 

In a subsequent principle we shall show thai the grade 
of this faculty is far above thai which is aroused by hypnotic in- 
fluences. The speaker is not in any scum- in a subjective or trance 
condition, but is openly outspoken, frank, free and magnetic. Ee 
is not uttering the thoughts of others, hut the ideas of hi-, own 
brain, although from the realm of the sixth sense. There have 
been no successful orators in all history who have not p 3ed 
and used this faculty, and the lack of power in the present era i3 
due to the fact that men speak from mere mind and thought, with- 
out seeking the driving-home impulse that makes ideas irresistible. 
There will he no great orator in any era, except as this power makes 
him great. 

^ 513 I 

^ m 

The orator must go with and not beyond his 
audience. 

This is the 513th Ralston Principle. A careful study of its 
meaning may lead to a higher* degree of success in this great art. 
Most speakers commence by talking at the audience. It is doubtful 
if even the habit of talking to them is best. While the exordium, 
or careful opening, is a help, it is always desirable to make it simple 
and effective, and not too strong. Display of personal powers never 
accomplishes much; nor can such exhibitions be understood or 
realized as genuine, even if they are, until the atidience has been 
carried up to the plane from which they appear to emanate. 

Great endings are assisted by small beginnings. Lack 
of ostentation should accompany a humane sympathy and fellow- 
feeling between the orator and his audience, without familiarity. 
Terms of address should be dignified, and should be avoided wher- 
ever they can. To be constantly saying, ".My brethren," "My 
sisters," "My hearers/' "My beloved hearers," "Friends," "Fellow- 
citizens," "Ladies and gentlemen," etc., is undignified. If once 
used at the beginning, that should suffice, and no furl her persOJ 
:erence should be made, except in addressing the judge or the 



478 



UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 



jury in a trial. Outside of these instances, the opening may be 
simple, sympathetic, and yet full of dignity. In order to go 
with the audience, it is not necessary to descend to undignified 
familiarity. 

Listeners as a rule are fond of an appearance of associa- 
tion and sociability in a speaker. Some of the most successful 
orators, after a line or two of exordium, or polished opening that 
serves as a framework of beauty or strength, pass into a pleasant 
reference to something that is sure to arouse interest and pleasure 
at the same time. One refers to the beauty of the town, another to 
the time of the year with its fascinations, another to some familiar 
topic that is on everybody's tongue, another to some recent public 
occurrence, and so on, as circumstances will permit. A very elo- 
quent lecturer undertook to handle the dry subject of astronomy, 
and render it interesting by reducing its principles to the plane of 
popularity, and opened in the following vein: "Ladies and gentle- 
men, I am surprised to see so many of you out this evening. I 
wish I could say that the subject is as interesting as it is important. 
It is not of a kind to amuse the public, and if you should decide 
to get up out of your seats, and go home at any time during this 
lecture, do not for a moment think I would blame you. It is your 
right to leave anything you do not like. I would do the same 
thing, and would take pride in the spirit of independence that 
prompted it. Stronger influences are at work in this age of bright- 
ness to keep the mind interested; as our old familiar meteors are 
tempted away from their region in the sky, which astronomers had 
come to regard as their home until Saturn and Jupiter began their 
work of inducing them to stray away." The lecturer went on to 
describe what he meant, and ere the audience had caught his idea, 
he was in the midst of an interesting talk which grew into a very 
eloquent lecture. He took his audience with him by first going 
among them, and at no time getting them beyond their depth. 

The uselessness of speaking to hearers who are not on 
the same plane of association with the orator may be seen by watch- 
ing the failures that are made, and which seem to throw the veil 
of obscurity over the work. Clearness should exist even before 
magnetism is attempted. The latter must have as its basis the 
greatest value that can be inspired by clearness, interest and im- 
portance of statement. Then it is that this power is able to drive 
facts home with unerring aim. But, as charms enhance all values, 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF SPECIAL POWER 479 

bo the plane of association must always be maintained. No audience 
is so lowly that i( cannoi be uplifted. Even Father Taylor, in I 

Seaman's Bethel at Boston, speaking to Ignorant sailors, was able 
to take them with him to heights of grandeur. But In* took- ii, 
with him. He did not perch on the dizzy heights, and attempt to 

pull them up; he went down to them, used the language and the 
simile of the sailor, and gradually carried them wheresoever he 
chose. No great orator ever gets heyond the depth of his audience. 
Webster used great words at times, but kept his meaning clear c\ 
in its ponderous weight; his large terms were not crowded togel her 
like the phrases of the average college professor. 

Many a speaker has said in effect: "I am a scholar, 
my work is scholarly; I cannot descend to the level of my audience, 
because I would degrade my profession. They must come up to 
me." Such speakers are failures as orators; if they succeed, it is 
because the} 7- are mere readers of facts, and herein the press is their 
superior. Perhaps the greatest exordium in oratory is in Webster's 
reply to Hayne; yet, in all its elaboration, the most lowly mind 
would be entranced by its simplicity. No scholar need descend an 
inch from his dignity to put himself on a plane with Ins audiem 
They are human beings, and as such are worthy of some association; 
they cannot be outlawed by the methods of oratory. The grandest 
words of English speech are monosyllables, and no one suffers in 
dignity by calling them words of one syllable. Shakespeare, in his 
heights of sublimity, depends on such words for producing the 
masterly effects of his genius; effects that the greatest minds rince 
his day have never equaled. If you will study his works, you will 
see in every instance that, as he rises to those heights, the words of 
two or more syllables gradually fall away, and unusual terms are 
no longer employed. 

What can any orator hope to gain who will go beyond 
his audience? Let his theory be right; of what use is it to take his 
hearers into depths they cannot tread, or on heights where their 
footing fails and their wings cannot sustain them? "If they canni 
understand me, it is their fault. I do not furnish them wiili 
brains," is the belief of modern oratory. No ureal sneaker ever 
acted upon such theory. "I must win."' is the cry of genius. *i 
will measure my audience in the start ; I will go ahead no faster 
than they can travel; I will aever distance them." Soon he touch - 
thom through his magnetism, and establfshes a cord of influen 



480 Vis ITERS AL MAGNETISM 

so powerful that he lifts them to any height where he chooses. His 
plane is theirs for the time being, and they are together. 

^ fie 

The successful speaker studies his audience moment 
by moment. 

This is the 514th Ealston Principle. The art of succeeding in 
oratory is the art of knowing moment by moment the temper, the 
mood and the interest of the audience. It is the acme of absurdity 
to ask a close friend, after the effort is ended, "How did I do? 
Did they appreciate me?" Imagine Demosthenes, Cicero, Burke, 
Beaconsfield, or any of the thousand brilliant speakers of history, 
seeking information as to whether they succeeded in swaying their 
audiences. Such private testimony is of no value. The speech re- 
ceives its answer in the conduct of the auditors. The orator knows, 
if he is at all in touch with them, just how much power he wields 
and what its effect is worth. 

A minute study is necessary, if failure would be averted. 
This does not occur to more than one speaker in a thousand, and 
these nine hundred and ninety-nine prove that the press is of 
greater power than such oratory. "I never realize the presence of 
my audience, I am so full of my subject," says the fly-away talker, 
who is mastered by his own energies. "I know the mind and dis- 
position of every man on the jury," said Bufus Choate; and in those 
days, when a lawyer could talk without being limited in time, he 
would keep at the jury until the last man yielded. Seeing this, he 
brought his magnetic oratory to a graceful close. In ordinary 
cases, the advocate of to-day is usually limited to one hour in his 
closing address; but in cases of such importance as many of those 
in which Choate appeared, the courts of to-day allow as much time 
as he had. He played to the twelve men in the box, and primarily 
to the judge. If their faces told the story of a victory already won, 
he was brief in his argument, unless he feared a speech to fol- 
low him. 

The same rule applies to all methods of speech, whether 
in conversation, in acting, entertaining or oratory. There should 
be no conversation, even of the trivial sort, that does not meet the 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF SPECIAL POWER 481 

ends intended; if for pleasure, let it be measured by that standard, 
and not cause weariness; if for instruction, lei it convey informa- 
tion in a way that will not bore while it edifies; if for a transaction, 
let the purpose be attained, and this requires a measurement of tin- 
effect of every word. This can be done without the appearance of 
doing it. The actor is accustomed by the very art of his profession 
to know how far the audience is for or againsl him. In generj 
entertaining, it is a good idea to ask always mentally, "What is this 
worth to the audience?" The orator should, of all others, keep 
informed of every effect, for his duty is to convince, to control, 
persuade and win; a very different office from that usually per- 
formed. 

^ B 

$ § 

When auditors show lapse of mind the orator is 
hypnotizing and not magnetizing them. 

This is the 515th Ealston Principle. No condition on the 
part of an audience is more fatal to the success of the speaker than 
that called lapse. What this is may be ascertained by reference to 
the other principle under which it is fully discussed, and you are 
requested to study that carefully in connection with this. 

He who, in addressing an audience, is so carried away 
by his own enthusiasm or admiration of his efforts, that he cannot 
study each and every phase of the occasion and the effect, moment 
by moment, which his speech is producing, cannot hope for a high 
degree of success. Some speakers imagine that noise is the chief 
essential of oratory; and the theory on which they proceed is akin 
to that of a man beating a drum violently and blowing at random 
through a megaphone. Noise plays a very small part in the true 
expression of mind and heart; it deadens the nerves of hearing; the 
louder your voice becomes, the less easily it is heard, and the more 
it distresses those who are compelled to hear it. 

The disregard of the ordinary rules of conduct, as 
forth in this volume, in addressing an audience, will drive away 
their inclination to be led by vou. Until that much is insisted 
upon as a basis, it is useless to hope for more. The speaker who 
talks along one plane of pitch is sure to produce weariness, the next 



482 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

step to which is sleepiness, hypnotism or disgust. An evenness of 
force is just as bad, and the result is the same, whether the force is 
weak or strong; a slow and dull voice is slightly better than a rapid 
and loud one. The pounding in a boiler factory does not awaken, 
but, on the other hand, stupefies. A harsh voice, or any presenta- 
tion of the personality that annoys, cannot fail to defeat the mag- 
netism that might be put forth, no matter how powerful might be 
its intended effect. These facts must be borne in mind at all times. 

The first evidence of a lack of interest on the part of the 
audience is seen in some of them passing into the lapse state. This 
should be detected at once, for the tendency toward hypnotizing 
them is just the opposite of magnetizing them. You may hold 
them spellbound, but you cannot convince them, and win them to 
3 T our standard of belief if you drag them along on this negative 
side. Says a woman: "I love to hear Mr. M. preach, for he always 
puts me into a peaceful feeling, almost as gentle as an afternoon' 
nap." The monotone of Mr. K. seemed to destroy all opposition 
among the jury, for they sat calmly through it all for a full hour; 
but their verdict was given in favor of the other side. Says a juror: 
"1 listened to every word he said, but Til be blowed if I can recall 
a single idea, although every one of us decided that he talked beau- 
tifully /' Too many speakers believe in the methods that depress 
their auditors; they swing along in a regular rhythm, tell stories 
that sadden, and are satisfied to soothe their hearers into an hyp- 
notic daze. 

A constant recurrence of the same stvle of voice or 
delivery tends to produce this sleepy feeling that, while it holds 
the attention, does not secure the mind, and has no usefulness what- 
ever, either at the meeting or beyond its walls. Thus we are com- 
pelled to listen to the sing-song style that favors an unvarying re- 
currence of force and cadence. Even those who modulate, do so 
sometimes with a rising and falling regularity that invites sleep. 
If you rock a baby rapidly at one moment, slowly at another, jerk 
the cradle about a bit, kick it from underneath, and let one end 
come down on the floor with a bang, you will not put the little one 
to sleep right away; the tendency is to the opposite result. But let 
the motion be uniform and even throughout, and the baby will 
drop into a gentle slumber, unless some other cause is operating to 
keep it awake. So you may induce audiences to drop off into a doze 
by the rhythmic swings of the voice. 



REALM Of THE ESTATE OF SPECIAL POWERS 483 

Clergymen who cannot arouse by magnetism, try to 

do so by force of sound, yelling and pounding; but this is the boiler 
factory style. When they Tail in .such efforts, they Beek tin: hyp- 
notic plan of soothing their hearers into a dazed condition. It 
a sad reflection on the usefulness possible among the clergy, that 
ninety-five out of every hundred air totally Jacking in the positive 
power of magnetism, yet that all might acquire such power if they 
were enterprising and godly enough to choose to do so. You may 
go into most any church; the preacher is shouting, and the auditors 
have a faraway look; or he is soothing, and they are dreaming. 
Those who are pillars of the church, and who therefore consider it 
a duty to keep wide awake, do so with visibly painful efforts. Where 
is the good of such preaching? How long will it take to convert 
the world when the ministers of the gospel cannot hold the ordi- 
nary interest of their hearers, to say nothing of winning them over 
to the cause? 

There are energetic men in the pulpit who are gifted 
with the insight required by the condition that confronts their 
profession. They have learned that the value of the thing said may 
be overwhelmed in the manner of saying it; that a weak truth well 
uttered and driven home is more potent than one of power if in- 
effectually presented; that the tricks of oratory are useless when 
apparent; that the best speaking is that which comes from the 
heart, well clothed in the graces of mind and body; that, while 
modulation and natural expression are far better than clumsy 
monotony and crude articulation, they are empty in the presence of 
magnetic fires, and that he who would succeed in convincing must 
elevate as he proceeds, and win as he elevates. Depression is the 
art of hypnotism; ennobling and arousing are the arts of mag- 
netism. 

Study your audiences in their every mood. Be on the 
lookout for evidence of the lapse. You will see it in the parallel 
gaze, wherein the eye-ball is fixed in a far-off look and its pupil 
seems distended, while the face shows something like a dream. 
Such a countenance may stare at you, yet not see you. It is not 
uncommon to find your hearer looking you in the eye, directly and 
honestly as you suppose; but he is thinking of nothing, absolutely 
nothing. More often, however, his gaze is aside, but he is still at- 
tentive in appearance; you have driven all thought out of his head 
You ask, "What did I just say?" and he replies u f did not catch it." 



484 UNIVERSAL 21AGXETISM 



"But were you thinking of something else?*' "I must have been." 
"Bo you recall what you were thinking of?" "Xo, it was nothing 
important, for I cannot remember anything of it." Here your words 
established a perfect vacuity in his mind. He was your subject, 
but you won nothing. 

Working hard to conquer your hearers is not magnetic. 
The more effort you make, the more they will feel that you are at 
a disadvantage. A river that foams and tosses about is not so 
mighty as one whose still waters, running deep, bear great burdens 
along. There is majesty and strength in repose of manner. Two 
laws seem to work counterwise, that in fact are harmonious. The 
weaker you are, the harder you must strive to convince others of 
your power; yet the less you are agitated, the more power you will 
accumulate. Your audience will admire the conscious quietude 
with which you maintain your supremacy over them. When you 
see a speaker storming and raging like a lion at bay. you behold one 
whose vitality is running to waste; he is throwing off force and pos- 
sibly magnetism to the four winds of heaven. Let him concentrate 
it and drive it with a steady hand, and he might bear along with 
him his entire audience; instead of giving them the exhibition of a 
runaway team, with the driver oblivious of his plight. 

A lawyer advocating a case found that the jurors went 
off into a doze at a time when he thought he was most interesting 
and effective, lie imagined that they were tired out, probably >n 
account of their excessive labors on the case; and. to keep them 
awake, he began to shout and make every kind of vocal and 
physical demonstration that seemed to be permissible in cheap ora- 
tory. Some of the jurors opened their eyes, gave him a look of 
wonderment, much as a dozer in a railway car might do when the 
train passed a brass band, then lapsed off again. "I shouted 
louder," he afterward said, "but they recoiled the more. Noise 
could not interest them. 1 knew that I had the justice of the 
on my side, and yet I felt that it was oozing out of my hands. M y 
client could not afford to lose. I glanced at him and saw a look of 
agony on his face, I instantly put myself in his place: I ceased to be 
the lawyer; I was the man; all my inner feelings awoke, sympathy, 
hope, zeal, determination, and. then and there, as I stood on my 
feet before that jury, I resolved to win that case or pay for its loss 
in cash to my client. I know if every lawyer who realizes that he is 
on the right side, would make such a resolve, justice would triumph 



REALM OF Tin: ESTATE OF SPECIAL POWERS 485 

more often. Gradually I passed out of my previous methods, and 
found myself drifting along for a few moments in a transition 

mood; then my inner magnetism began to show itself. Twenty- 
four eyes were focused upon mine; the jurors sal up, they leaned 
forward, and soon I saw the pupils of their eye-balls grow larger; 
what I said they believed; and 1 slopped as soon as I knew that the 
case was won. All that the eloquent lawyer who followed me could 
say or do, could not wrest the victory from me. In two hours later 
we heard the verdict. I did not smile. I took my client by tin.' 
hand, and realized, as I studied his face, what obligations rest on 
the shoulders of lawyers who hold in their power the rights, the 
property and the happiness of their clients. Thenceforward I 
studied magnetism, and placed my dependence on its efficacy." 

Good cases are lost because of the inability of attorneys 
to reach the jurors. They believe in two things, and disaster 
is charged to the stupidity of juries instead of placing it at the door 
of their own neglect. They can see no further than to believe that, 
if a person has something to say, he will say it; and if he is in 
earnest he cannot go astray. Neither of these propositions is true, 
standing alone. There are millions who have much to say, who, 
when they open their mouths, are unable to give it utterance. 
The great mines and funds of feelings and thought, go to the grave 
unused, because they are not clothed with the vesture of expres- 
sion. Man is a creature of environments, hemmed in by a shell ol: 
limitations through which he rarely ever breaks his way. Genius 
lurks within most persons, but goes through life fettered, simply 
because it cannot set its wings free for flight. 

By reference to another principle it will be seen that a 
magnetic person is able to pass at will from one of his esta 
into another. As long as he is in command of himself, he 
can always do this, and it is only when he is mastered by circum- 
stances or by the superior magnetism of another, that he will fail to 
step out of one estate into another. Therefore, in connection with 
this line of study, it is necessary to glance at the meaning of other 
principles in this volume, so as to apply them to the one now under 
consideration. There is no one lesson that is to be the sole guide of 
the successful orator. His work must be based on all that precedes 
and all that follows in the teachings of this book. Even the neg- 
ative side of the study, as presented under the realm of hypnotism, 
is valuable as showing what is to be avoided. It is not enough that- 



486 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

we pursue the true course; for, if even we drift, as we may at times, 
we should know the rocks and shoals that threaten our voyage. 
With these remarks, let us now glance at a vital doctrine. 



1 516 | 

To destroy a lapse the speaker should pass into the 
realms of peace and intensity. 

This is the 516th Ealston Principle. If his hearers are in a 
vacuity of mind, it is due solely to the fact that he himself is in the 
realm of confusion. What this means may be seen by reference to 
the full descriptions which are given under other principles. Con- 
fusion may be lack of mental clearness, or it may be the unmar- 
shalled condition of the ranks of magnetic vitality, like forces of 
magnificent power wandering about aimlessly without leadership or 
organization, Such was Cicero in the early days of his career. 

Many a genius knows nothing of the laws of marshall- 
ing his hosts of energy. He becomes wild, furious, erratic and use- 
less. He estranges all his followers and pains his dearest friends. 
They recognize in him the possibilities of great leadership, the hope 
of success for him and them; but they see his army, the magnetic 
forces within, straying off without guide, and all his energy going 
with no purpose. It is necessary to have such ranks; for, when 
united, they become an irresistible power; but, without organiza- 
tion 'and singleness of leadership, they are no more useful than 
would have been the brigades of our greatest warrior if each soldier 
had been allowed to command himself. This is confusion; not 
necessarily of mind, but surely of magnetism. 

We have told how the speaker may detect the lapse in 
his audience. The cure is in getting away from the cause and 
adopting the only effective means of awakening and not putting to 
sleep the minds of those who listen. The subject-matter must be 
valuable. Many speakers hunt for facts, anecdotes, stories, illus- 
trations, and other things that will probably create great interest. 
When all these seem likely to fail, the weakest orators resort to the 
use of pictures which are placed on the canvas with the aid of the 
stereopticon. Minds and opinions are not won in any such way. 
If the lecture or address must be interlarded with items of mere in- 



h'JJALM or TUB ESTATE OF SPECIAL POWER 487 

terest, and of no other value, there is a wake of froth that follows 
the effort. The subject-matter should be great iu all it- d< 

interesting of course, but all this and much more. 

The tools of expression must be the very best that 
can be procured. These are the coinage of perfect consonants, th<; 
enunciation of perfect vowels, i\\( i accurate delivery of language, the 
pleasing changes of voice by which meaning and feeling may 
rendered in the sounds that harmonize with the mind and heart, 
and the grace of modulation through which relief from monotony 
is always assured. Never in any case in the past, nor ever in any 
instance of the future, have or will the tools of expression come to 
a person naturally. Voice itself is not born in the body. The 
larynx is in the throat, but that is merely a tool by which air is vi- 
brated. The tongue and lips are ready at the mouth, but they are 
useful for other purposes than shaping vowels and consonan 
Let the larynx remain unused, and there would be no voice. All 
such faculties are developed in the w T ay, to the extent, and for the 
purposes in which they are employed, and lack of employment 
would obliterate them. 

The greatest mistake made by any author is the belief 
that his voice is born in him. It is true that sounds, crying, shriek- 
ing, screeching, shouting and the like, are produced in the earliest 
moments of life and are depended upon in after years by the public 
speaker; but the voice as a million-stringed instrument of the mind 
and heart, is a thing of development through use and training; and 
no orator ever stepped full-fledged into the arena w r ith this instru- 
ment waiting for him to merely touch and play it. The biography 
of every great speaker tells us that he has studied and practiced 
until the voice has been built up to the standard needed. 

Of every one thousand orators nine hundred and 
ninety-nine are failures to a greater or less extent; and most of 
them are decided nuisances. The most part of a law trial is the 
talk of the lawyer. The most tiresome part of church services is 
the sermon. Yet the guilty parties wall not admit it. They con- 
sider themselves exceptions; and even go so far as to ''know" that 
they are exceptions. With aspirate, or harsh, throaty voices, with 
mannerisms of body that only tend to irritate their audiences, they 
hold on to these false ideas with a certainty that is not to be shaken, 
and that is understood only by a study of our principle relating to 
stubbornness. They refuse to acquire the tools of expression. 



488 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

Some are changing their views now; suggestions are being received 
and adopted, and speakers are making their work worth more money 
value through the use of the teachings of magnetism. 

Assuming that the tools of expression are being used, 
the magnetic speaker will be able to quickly dispel the lapse of his 
audience. He must come out of the realm of confusion, and enter 
those of peace and intensity. There is no mistaking when one is 
in either of these estates. To pass into the realm of confusion he 
lets himself go, as though the boat, not being rowed up stream, 
would drift downward by its own impulses. To come into the es- 
tate of peace he must pursue the course of training as given under 
that department in this volume; and the same is true of the other 
estate of intensity, which is acquired under the study of the Will 
in this volume. The greater the determination of magnetism, the 
greater is the intensity. 

3K~ *' ^ ~ >\ 

s< c t7 m 

^ I 

In speaking, the deeper the feeling the less the body 
expresses it. 

This is the 517th Ealston Principle. It is a part of the law of 
intensity. The feeling is centered in the innermost part of the 
body; physically speaking, in the chest at that part where the life 
of the body is created by the union of the oxygen of the air with the 
blood. This is farthest away from the extremities. The more the 
energies run wild, the more active will be the feet, carrying the 
body about; the arms and hands in gesticulation; and the head in its 
sympathetic movements. It is also true that the less effective a 
speaker becomes the more action there is in the extremities of feet, 
hands and head. Again it is true that the less magnetism and the 
greater weakness he pi s, the more active he becomes in this 

way. The probable cause of the association of weakness and action 
is found in the attempt to accomplish a certain end: which, bed 
unattainable in the use of vital power, must be sought by extraor- 
dinary effort. 

These activities lead to failure. In the first place they 
tire the body and use up its physical and nervous vitality, leaving 
it floundering like a drowning man buffeting the waves. The ex- 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF SPECIAL POWER 489 

perienced swimmer loses not one unnecessary motion; in danger he 

is strong because he is steady. The weakling in the trough of th 5 
sea, as on its calm bosom, strikes aboiii in a wild ferocity. So in 
oratory. In the second place these activities detract from the ef- 
forts of the speaker by calling atteni ion to his movements. In the 
third place they worry, irritate and unnerve the audience; render- 
ing the value of the address as little as possible. No one can lo: 
endure the sight of so much distracted action. The worst of it is, 
the voice is colored by the motions of the body, and the mind 
thinks no better and no more smoothly than the muscles do their 
work. 

While gestures are necessary they should proceed from 
the intensity of the power within, from which they receive their 
temper and by which they are controlled. Such action, represent- 
ing and speaking from the central fire of life is always magnetic, it 
is never peripheral, never centrifugal, but is ever held to the force 
that gives it expression. It is very bad to walk about on the plat- 
form; the few changes of the feet within a compass of change will 
yield all the variations needed. In proportion as the power of self- 
control is lost the temptation becomes stronger to walk about, to 
pace the floor, to stride up and down the stage, and become a mov- 
ing machine, or sort of locomotive. This does not apply to the actor 
who must suit his movements to the general action of the drama, 
and whose entrances and exits, as well as crossings, are made a part 
of the story which is being enacted. And there are times when the 
speaker must pass to other parts of the platform. 

1 518 B 

The orator should make no unintended movement, 
great or small. 

This is the 518th Ralston Principle. It is of the highest im- 
portance in the art of controlling an audience, that this law should 
be always kept in mind and acted upon. It includes every motion 
that can be made, commencing with the eyelids in one direction and 
passing to the fingers and toes as objective points of control. It is 
a very faulty habit to be constantly winking while speaking. tt l 
have tried to stop it, but I cannot." says a weakling. Yes, you can. 
You have not half tried. If you really make up your mind to stop 



490 UNIVERSAL MAGXETISM 

it, you will succeed. Another trial brings success. The persons 
who cannot do what they try to do, are childish in magnetism. 
Whatever any person resolves to do will be done if the resolution 
comes from a strong will. 

It is not alone because the movements of nervousness or 
of runaway energy lessen the stock of magnetism on hand; but also 
because they weary the audience and produce an irritable condition 
in them that such action should be avoided. They are guilty of 
this double offence. We do not hesitate to afhrm that no magnetic 
speaker can long hold control over others, and no unmagnetic 
speaker can win this power who indulges in unintended movements. 
The reasons why intention makes all the difference are two; in the 
first place, such motions become fewer all the time; in the second 
place, they are directed by the conscious will when intended, and 
are thus connected with the fund of power which they strengthen; 
while unintended motions grow in number all the time, and are off- 
shoots that rob the body of its life. Then, again, they indicate a 
lack of self-control, which is everything. 

A speaker who is so far lost in his subject as to be con- 
trolled by it is in the realm of confusion. We recall one who 
thought he had reached the realm of peace; but he nodded his head 
at every emphatic word in a sermon an hour long; there were never 
less than twenty such words a minute, or twelve hundred in the 
hour; and these twelve hundred nods prove exhaustive to himself 
and to his audiences. Mentally he is a success: magnetically he is 
a failure; his congregations are not increasing; he does not draw a 
single listener, for duty to religion compels his faithful members to 
attend church; and so his life is comparatively a wasted one. lie 
cannot learn the lesson of success. His case is typical of others. 
Every step taken, every gesture made, every nod of the head, every 
act, large or small, should be intended and executed as such. It 
need not be slow at all times. The flash of lightning is not an acci- 
dent of nature. 

As speakers study audiences so the latter study the 
former. When the orator loses any of his magnetism, the listeners 
cease to follow him; they are restless and fidgety, and this broken 
influence they give back to him. He gets what he imparts. His 
own nature travels in a circle. When a power has been tempora- 
rily obtained in his address, and is lost, he is seen to carry his hand 
io his face and attempt to alleviate some itching sensation. This is 



REALM OF Till: ESTATE OF SPECIAL POWERS 491 

the almost universal symptom of nervousness. Then his finge 

seek something else, as a button, a part of the clothing, or a mean-; 
of relief by going behind the body out of sight, in the trouser's 
pocket, or in the coat front. His next exhibition of loss of power is 
an irresistible desire to walk about, or to move the feet. Not only 
is he at a disadvantage with reference to himself, but he has con- 
fused his audience. 

i M ^ i 

Magnetism, in creating vitality in others, receives 
back more than it gives. 

This is the 519th Ealston Principle. The law is one of more 
than ordinary importance to the orator. The question arises, 
whether the audience inspires the speaker, or the reverse is true. 
It sometimes happens that the applause will frighten a speaker; and 
it must be borne in mind that such demonstration is far different 
from the responsive feeling that results from magnetism. The 
latter is present only when the feeling runs deep. The occasion, 
the purpose for which the meeting is held, the general atmosphere 
of importance, all serve to give to the orator a degree of vital inter- 
est which he does not experience when the audience is cold and the 
whole work of arousing enthusiasm devolves upon him. He must 
furnish magnetism or fail. 

Under such circumstances it devolves upon him to com- 
mence by taking the exact measure of his audience, and proceeding 
by easy stages to secure control of them. He must not challenge 
them by an assumption of power, nor by an early exhibition of it. 
If he allows his energies to run wild, the performance will fall flat 
ere it has gone far. Oratorical display is fatal. The well-trained 
orator is taught to secure his effect by concealing all appearances of 
display, as the skilled actor knows how to avoid the stagey demeanor. 
The speaker always arouses antagonism if he seems to believe him- 
self greater than his audience; he may be so in fact; he may show 
his superior manliness if it is safe to do so; but he must never 
parade his belief in himself. 

Small beginnings with evidences of an inability to cope 
with the requirements of the occasion, in case the speaker is at all 
interesting, are certain to arouse sympathetic hearing, which be- 



492 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM ' 

comes intensified as soon as the audience begins to believe in the 
man. Then his magnetism, coming slowly into play, will send a 
thrill, quiet, deep and strong, through the hearers; this he feels in 
the instant; it goes to him in greater quantity becanse it comes from 
a greater supply if active; and he now has more to give. As long as 
he handles himself carefully the exchange goes on, yielding him 
new life each time. The horripilation of the skin, which accompa- 
nies his recognition of this power, is felt equally by his auditors as 
by himself. What he experiences, they experience. This thrill 
tells him that he and they are en rapport. He is in touch with his 
audience. This is a great victory, and should be maintained 
throughout the occasion. By care in controlling himself he may 
not only hold this power, but may increase it by the very use. 

I § 

V* con « 

What a magnetic person sees clearly in his own 
mind is photographed on the tones of the voice. 

This is the 520th Ealston Principle. This law has no relation 
to the sub-conscious faculty. By reading this book it will be seen 
that the latter power is in two parts, a low realm faculty of morbid 
sight beyond the use of the brain in its ordinary senses, and a higii 
realm faculty which constitutes the last estates of the volume. But, 
aside from either of these gifts, is the well-known ability of the mind 
to so clearly stamp its own pictures on its nerves that they take part 
in the vibrations of the thoughts and travel out to other minds with 
them. 

The use of this power is so necessary to the talker, 
the orator, the actor and to all persons who wish to clearly convey 
their meanings to others, that it should be understood and culti- 
vated by every man and woman. We must first see what it is, and 
then ascertain how it may be acquired and increased. The tele- 
phone conveys along the wire in electrical currents that affect the 
air, the tones, intonations, glides, stresses and even the overtones of 
voice by which almost any speaker may be recognized from all 
others. The phonograph receives such sounds and talks them back 
again at will. That either process could transmit words, syllables, 
vowels, consonants, and qualities of tone, is certainly wonderful, 



REALM OF Till: ESTATE OF SPECIAL POWER 493 

* 

and a generation or two ago the power to do bo would ha 
challenged. 

In a similar way, but by a different medium of communi- 
cation, the thoughts of one person may be sent to the brain of an- 
other, and there be felt and interpreted. They vibrate the ether- 
i, just as sound vibrates the atmospheric sea* or wave- vib be 

ocean. This ether-sea is a well establish.'. I fact. The transfer of 
thought by channels other than the senses, is also too well estab- 
lishes to be argued. Thought felt intensely in one mind and di- 
rected to another will strike in waves upon that other, and, it' the 
latter is in a responsive condition, the meaning will be interpreted. 
Neither person may see the other, and no sound may be littered or 
heard. Third persons may be oblivions of the transfer. 

The photographic power of the mind is established by 
a clearly defined thought, an intense thinking and an irresistible 
determination to send it to another mind. All human beings feel 
before they learn to think. Every thought can be traced to its 
origin in some passion. The experience which we have while feel- 
ing a passion is the source of some subsequent thought, or train of 
thought. By analyzing a train of thought we will find its parts and 
processes made up of mental experiences, each traceable to some 
distinct passion. Instincts and passions are not identical. The 
former are capable of developing only the latter, and that in crude 
form; while the latter alone are capable of developing thought. 
The lowest forms of creation possess strong instincts, and no real 
passions. The higher types of animals, next to man, po> >ut 

few instincts, and feel many of the passions. Man's instincts are 
very limited, while he is capable of running the whole gamut of the 
passions. A passion must have results. These results pass into 
our lives and make up existence. The results of the passions are 
certain kindred feelings, known as emotions, which, as they aiv de- 
veloped, show themselves in very marked convolutions of the brain. 
The results of the emotions are thoughts; or that succession of feel- 
ings, which, because of the natural movement of cause and effect, 
we call the process of reasoning. The reasoning faculties are lo- 
cated in the nervous system, and axe merely a succession of emo- 
tional results; they are co-extensive with the life of the nerv 
The passions have not been established at hap-hazard by the Cre- 
ator, but are placed in the brain-system with careful exactness. The 
nerve-system is capable of thinking, and is n<>t confined to i ad, 



494 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

although thoughts as well as nerve-force arise in the head. Every 
system must have its center or source of intelligent control. 

Words are sounds that appeal to the ear, or characters 
that appeal to the eye; and represent something which we have ex- 
perienced through the emotions directly or indirectly by the avenues 
of the senses; as something we have seen, heard, felt, smelt, or 
tasted. Between the word and the real thought which it represents 
there is a connecting link. All persons are more or less impressed. 
It is a cultivatable habit. The present lessons explain this fact. 
Your thought is excited by one thought section of the brain; and 
excites a corresponding section of all other brains. This is a uni- 
versal law. But in the general transmissions of connictinsr 
thoughts your brain is excited in many sections at once. 

Therefore in order to receive a strong thought, 
which comes to you always as an impression, it is necessary to culti- 
vate two habits. Once let the mind be placed in its proper training 
as to divisions and recognition of the divisions and their separate 
activities, and ever after the power of receiving and understanding 
impressions will abide with you. An impression is a feeling of 
something about to happen, or something that is happening. If it 
is something about to happen, then the thought of it is already well 
fixed in some mind, and that mind is directed toward you. In the 
far West the desperadoes, by years of intuitive acquisition, will feel 
the presence of immediate danger, and this feeling is so acute that 
it becomes a living fact to each. They never make a mistake, when 
sober. 

In spite of the evils of gambling, the expert gambler 

has attained to one degree of excellence; he knows the mind of his 

companion in the game. A very expert poker player can only be 

thwarted by a man who can throw his mind off to opposite moods. 

To study these men as they sit studying the faces of others, and 

thereby learning the condition of their hands, will repay one for the 

loss of morality which may be suffered. What is thus turned to a 

bad use may be made far more valuable in a good use. It is a fact 

that merchants in trading, or great capitalists in dealing with men 

lesser than themselves, have gained their advantages by knowing 

the minds of those with whom they tame in contact. The gambler 

is forced to the habit by necessity, as any criminal may be forced to 

follow some high moral law at times in order to keep out of jail. 

Keen uses make keen faculties. The man who seeks to know what 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF SPECIAL POWER 495 

is in the minds of others, (nines in time into a Jiai.it of gainin 
cess by the use of methods which oecessity tells him must 
adopted if he would succeed. These methods should receive our at 
tcntion at this place, as they arc always dependent upon magnetism 

for the force thai makes them vital. 

| 521 I 

Magnetism may open and close the mind at will, 
for waking, sleeping or thinking. 

This is the 521st Ralston Principle. The foundation of its 
power is in the accumulation of magnetism under the mechanical 
practice of the first volume. Having done this, the next step is in 
the stud)- of the great two estates of this book; namely, the realms 
of peace and will. It would at first seem true that the greater the 
magnetism, the easier it is to close the mind, especially for going 
to sleep; but the less magnetism a person possesses, the more con- 
fused are his energies. These must be supposed as wild powers, for 
it is their uncontrolled state that leads to wakefulness. The fact 
has been tested over and over again. One of the hardest working 
and most magnetic physicians this country has ever produced was 
able to put himself to sleep while wailing for an engagement with 
a patient; if the latter came late, the doctor had improved the few 
minutes by a sound sleep, from which he would awaken as easily 
as he fell into it, yet would derive full benefit from the repose. 

Insomnia has been completely cured in any ease, how- 
ever severe, when the sufferer has acquired magnetism under these 
advanced lessons; of course, using the first volume as a basis for 
the culture. We have had occasion to recommend this power to 
many who could get no relief from other treatments, and the result 
has always been the same, a complete cure. The reason is told in 
the realm of peace and its predeeossor; for scattered energies, like 
engines running wild, are dangers to the body and confusion to 
the mind. These are held under control by magnetism. More 
than that; a person possessing this power is able to fix the length of 
time for a nap, and awaken at the moment indicated. 

Experiments are very conclusive in this respect, and 
we will suggest the following as the best: Close the mind, or at 
least attempt to do so. The first twenty trials may result in n > 



496 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

progress; one trial a day being sufficient, and from thirty minutes 
to an hour being devoted to it. Thought flows in a succession of 
waves, like a swell across the sea. In the course of three weeks 
of daily practice, directed under the principles stated in the realm 
of the will, you should catch the recognition of a flow of thought. 
As soon as you recognize the thought-flow, which must result from 
faithful practice, you will know just what is operating in your 
brain, after which it will be an easy task to shut off the flow of 
thinking. Try it, and be convinced. The proof of a thing is in 
what it does. Scientists differ as to theories, but when they come 
to facts they are often dumbfounded to see their pretty theories 
demolished. Take, for illustration, the splendid systems of psy- 
chology taught in the great universities of the world; they fall and 
crumble before the great facts of life. 

When the out-going flow of thought is recognized, it is 
easy to control it at will. It may be shut off, or turned on in 
smaller or larger currents, like some stream over which a check is 
maintained. The reverse should now be attempted. Allow no 
thoughts to come into your mind, as you allow none to get out. 
Those persons who are susceptible possess no power over the im- 
pressions which they receive from others, and they are often dis- 
tracted by outer influences. You should close your mind at will 
against intrusions, or open it at will to catch others' thoughts. 
The reception of ideas or of impressions, which are feelings, from 
another, is easy if the other is at hand or in sight. Think of that 
person with the constant mental assertion: "I am passively listen-, 
ing to your mind.'* Of all the mental sentences capable of being 
used this has proved the most efficacious. Try it. But if the 
person is away, or if there is no person in mind, and you desire 
to draw into your brain some strong or distinct thought, as an 
impression, it is necessary first to stop the outflow and the inflow 
of thought from general sources, and absorb that which comes 
from the distance. 

The ordinary senses convey something of the moods 
thoughts and pmposes of others, as the student of facial expression 
has ascertained; but the finer, more delicate, and yet more certain 
way to be felt, is through the ether. Imagine for a moment a 
person sitting in your presence. If he is thinking of any subject, 
that subject is transmitted to the ether about him, which fills the 
entire room, until the subject itself occupies all the space. His 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF SPECIAL POWERS 497 

thoughts are as much out and around him as they are within him. 
They vibrate in every nerve of the body. Now, any person who 
is constituted or developed as to be able to feel the influence of 
the thought-waves upon the ether, would read his thoughts clearly 
and distinctly. 

This resolves the matter down to the single question : 
How shall we put ourselves in a condition to receive and feel the 
thought-waves which are vibrating all about us? The reply is to 
be had in the maintenance of the four following rules, which are 
summed up as four acquisitions: 1. An indomitable will. 2. Large 
magnetic life. 3. A persistent thinking of, and yearning for, the 
object desired. 4. The throwing out of the magnetic lines toward 
that object or wish. Any person, no matter how weak, may acquire 
all these conditions, even if none of them are present in the least 
degree. To this great end the art tends. 

But for the purposes of this power we need the four 
conditions to affect the distance about us; that is, to give us control 
over facts occurring on earth, though not in our presence. To do 
this we need all the aid of the long course of training found in the 
estates that lead up to this lesson — to enable us to control our out- 
going thoughts, or, for the while, to prevent our originating any 
ideas or thoughts. Herein lies the greatest cure of mental troubles. 
Only men and women of great magnetism are able to stop thinking. 
Lesser mortals worry at every trifle. Worry kills more people than 
all other causes combined. Worry is agitated thinking. It operates I 
to mar the free action of the medulla oblongata, or the third brain, 
from which spring the nerves that give vitality to the vegetable 
body and the three functions thereof; namely, respiration, digestion 
and circulation. 

When a person worries the large brain absorbs all the 
vitality of the nervous system and general strength; little vitality is 
left for the medulla. Consequently, the respiration almost ceases; 
the heart becomes fitful and ultimately deranged in its effort to 
meet the unusual demand upon it, and digestion is very feeble. 
We sit at the table in good spirits, eating heartily in response to 
a lively appetite, when bad news arrives. The gastric juice stops 
flowing into the stomach, digestion ceases, and appetite is lost. 
Likewise a person who carries one thought too long, or who is 
pinioned by an uncontrollable activity of the brain, cannot dig- 
food readily. 



498 UNIVERSAL 3IAGNETISJU 

No more useful lesson in life can be learned than this 
which is taught under the present principles. It is gratifying to 
recognize results in the many experiments which have been made 
by our students. To be controlled by one's own wandering and 
ofttimes erratic feelings, is to be at the mercy of a stormy sea t 
without rudder, oars or sail to guide and direct the boat of life; 
but to be the constant prey of others' moods, and to be the tool 
of every passing influence, is still worse. We know of nothing so 
important as the magnetic control of the mind, for this organ is 
a world in itself, and controls all else that belongs to human exist- 
ence. It is the moral agent as well as the mental and physical. 
Life is one long series of activities impelled by this organ. 

| 522 I 

Magnetism perfects the brain power. 

This is the 522d Ralston Principle. The brain is an engine -a. 
that feeds on electricity, phosphorus and magnetism, the latter 
being the directing agent and master as well, while the former are 
means of obeying its dictates. It is not possible to think without 
phosphorus and electricity; yet these are not sufficient. Add to 
them the power of magnetism, and the engines may run wild. An 
engineer is needed; the will must drive the forces that tell for 
man's ruin or supremacy. This will must come to recognize the 
thought-flows, the incoming and outgoing ideas, and must direct 
them at all times. 

Having gained this much of the mastery, the will 
must adopt that photographic clearness of thought and feeling 
that is referred to under a preceding principle. What the mind of 
a magnetic person sees or feels clearly will be photographed in the 
tones of his voice. Speech is the most common means of com- 
munication, and the man or woman whose brain is so clear that 
every utterance is perceived and understood by those to whom it 
may be directed, is already a great power. This skill is acquired 
by magnetism, and has been explained. The use of a faculty 
strengthens it, and, in fact, preserves it against disease. The brain 
should be tested by hard work daily: not all the time, but for a 
while each da v. 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF SPECIAL POWERS 499 

Memorizing magnetizes the brain by its activity, if the 
thought is fully fell and appreciated. As the memory is strength- 
ened with wonderful rapidity, it is a sin t<> permit it to remain 
weak. Its use or non-use quickly affects ii cither way. A break in g 
down of the brain-power first n j 'pears m the difficulty of remember- 
ing names and events; and, while it is nut true that the cultivation 
of memory would restore the brain, it would nevertheless help it 
some, and prevent mental disease. As we owe many duties to those 
with whom we deal in business and social life, we have no right tu 
forget them, for our forgetfulness often causes annoyance and loss 
to them. This element of character being an important one, it is 
w r ell to go into a special course of training to develop and 
strengthen it. 

1. Take any sentence; select the emphatic words, having but 
one word to an elementary thought; commit these words to mem- 
ory in their order, then endeavor to complete the entire sentence 
mentally or aloud. 

2. In going from your home to any other house or place of 
business, try to recall all the persons by name whom you met, and 
in the order in which you met them. 

3. On retiring for the night, recall the events of the day in ' 
the order in which they have occurred. 

4. During meditation carry on a train of thought directed by 

I lie active will, and recall all the topics in reverse order, then in the ' 
order in which they came to the mind. 

5. A most excellent practice, and probably the very best for 
developing a quick and ready memory, is to listen closely to a 
sermon, and, on the first trial, seek to recall the text and the most / 
important points mafile during the discourse. On the second trial 
recall the two most important points established by the sermon, 
and so on, increasing by one each time. Do not seek at first to 
recall more than one point, for, although you will undoubtedly be 
able to remember very many, it will prevent the scale ot increase 
if you do not follow the plan here given. 

All these means of developing the magnetism of the 
brain help each other. The power to send a thought to another 
mind is helpful to the memory, for both require the utmost clear- 
m ss and intensity, although mere imitative memorizing is of the 
opposite character and lacks strength. This is seen in the case of 




500 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

one who lias committed a recitation and forgets a line somewhere 
in the middle of it, and must go back to the beginning to straighten 
it ont. That implies no mind; it is merely a succession of sounds. 
The Chinaman memorizes by a succession of sights, copying or 
imitating merely, but holding the ideas with tenacity. This is a 
mental gift, but is not true memorizing, and cannot therefore be- 
come magnetic. 

The clergyman is charged with the most solemn duties 
of the orator. We do not believe that the parish work should be 
imposed upon him. By divine command he is called upon to 
preach, not to enter into the financial problems of the church, nor 
the social intrigues of the choir. He is ground down under the 
pressure of labors not properly in his province. "With such a 
handicap, he is useless in many cases, and worse than useless in 
most. We believe in the minister and in the church. They alone 
are particularly endowed with the power and the business of 'main- 
taining the moral standing of the world. But we do not believe in 
the carthorse. 

To preach to the souls of men the minister must possess 
magnetism in the highest degree, as well as mental clearness and the 
other qualities of his profession. Out of mind alone come thoughts 
only. Out of sub-conscious power comes inspiration, and magnet- 
ism takes no step and makes no advance that does not lead con- 
stantly upward toward that faculty. A magnetic preacher can im- 
press, convince and win; but the drudge who visits his parishoners \ 
and grinds out a week of toil far more distracting than the method 
of getting a living by the wits, is not possibly capable of developing 
or even maintaining his magnetism. To say that the humble 
church cannot afford it is not true. In a community where there is 
but one church, there are not members enough to require labor 
from the pastor outside of his pulpit duties. Where there are two 
churches in the same community, let the minister of one do the 
drudgery and the other do the preaching. They will agree to this 
if they are honest. If the congregations object to amalgamation, 
let them think how ashamed they would be if God were to appear 
in their midst and ask what objection there could be to one church 
working as a harmonious whole, instead of two at war with each 
other in creed. 

Power in the ministry is greatly increased by mag- 
netism. This should not be conformed with zeal and excitement 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF SPECIAL POWER 501 

that take the mind off its legs; they are too often run away i ies 
that are not fruitful in worthy results. Magnetism rains, 

never pulls, never tugs, never shouts for mere noise, although the 
thunder-burst comes when the period is ripe for it; but, on the other 
hand, it draws the people away from themselves up to the plane 
whither the speaker would carry them. What is said on this suhject 
in the earlier pages of this realm, applies to the ministry and to all 
branches of oratorical use. For very many years we have watched 
the progress of our students in this art, who are ministers, and in 
every case they have bettered themselves. Of those who have been 
engaged in the study of magnetism for more than two years, we do 
not know of a single one who has not reported exi ra ordinary succe 

Power over juries has also been secured in a remark- 
able degree by our students. Lawyers who were accustomed to 
fail in their trials, have become the most successful in their coun- 
ties. How this has been done can be learned from one who sends 
us his report while the present book is being brought to its comple- 
tion (August, 1899). We embody the greater part of the account, 
as it is in itself a lesson in magnetism. "Like the lawyers whom 
you spoke of a number of years ago, I was poor and unsuccessful. 
I could not get a case to try for over two years. When I did go into 
court I was defeated, and lost a good cause. My client was ashamed 
of me. The public quietly ridiculed me, so much so that I was 
anxious to quit the law or move away where I was unknown. This 
would not save me, for I was unfit for the court part of my profes- 
sion. Yet I was well read in the law. I could floor much older 
lawyers on legal questions, and I could talk; but I was tiresome. 
When in this predicament I saw your book on Personal Magnetism; 
it was what I had been wanting for years; I got that, and then w< 
one better by buying the expensive book of Advanced Lessor 
though I borrowed the money. This was three or more y 
perhaps four. I depended on those two books and nothing more. 
I am going to tell you what I accomplished, and make it brief. I 
accumulated mechanical magnetism. Being a leaker I had room 
for much and it came. That was step number one. Everybody 
knows how that is done; it is easy. The second step was to control 
all my energies, by bringing them under one harmonious law; the 
third was the greatest, the will. I cultivated that. Now, I was 
ready for the world, for the battle of life. One thing 1 needed, and 
I am going to teach you, my teacher. It is this. 1 have an enor- 



502 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

mous fund of power, but it needed the diversified uses to give it 
escape without waste. I organized a debating society; I spoke at 
public meetings; I was invited to speak oftener; I attracted atten- 
tion by my co-called wonderful improvement in so short a time, and 
here I am to-day credited as the most eloquent and most successful 
jury lawyer of my county." He told the whole story in a succinct 
manner, and his report goes with the many other victories won by 
the power of magnetism. It is, as we hope your report some day, 
will be, one of the stars in this galaxy of glory. 

Power in the medical profession is rapidly gained 
through the practice of advanced magnetism. In no other calling 
is there so much opportunity for the exercise of this art. In the 
first place let the physician accumulate all the magnetism possible 
by the aid of the first volume, and let him compress all his energies 
into one chain of power, for confusion in him distracts the sensitive 
patient. The latter looks to the face of the doctor for hope, or for 
the story of the case; the very entrance of the physician is one of 
assurance, inspiring confidence, or it is one of confused energies, 
disturbing the confidence already secured. To make the sick one 
nervous or depressed is sure to throw back the patient and retard the 
progress toward recovery. Perfect calmness of mind, perfect peace 
of all the energies held under absolute sway, and a clearness of 
vision into the nature of the malady accompanied by a determina- 
tion to affect a cure, are preliminaries that every physician should 
regard. 

A distinction should be recognized between the so- 
called magnetic healers and the regular physicians. The former 
cannot be other than charlatans. There is no escape from this con- 
clusion. Disease cannot be driven out of a patient by the magnet- 
ism of another. Self-magnetism may effect a cure, but only by 
supplying vitality with which to govern the appetite and the assimi- 
lation of food; two processes that often fail because of a lack of 
functional life. This is afforded by magnetism, as is the increased 
vitality of the heart which is rapidly failing and bringing its owner 
to the grave. Even in such cases the proper nutrition must be sup- 
plied to the system. There is no cure of any disease, no matter 
what its kind, except by re-building the body. Medicines may shift 
the abnormal conditions, but never did and never can effect a cure. 
How absurd is it for a "magnetic healer" to attempt to "throw off" 
such a malady as rheumatism by rubbing or other processes, when 



RliM.M or TEE ESTATE OF SPECIAL POWERS 503 

the uric acid is being momentarily formed by p< e habits which 
the patient makes no effort to correct ? Aa weW open the Cancel and 
flood the house, then call the healer to pub the house instead i 
turning off the faucet. The cure of diseases is effected by turning 
off the fountain of their supply, and rebuilding the injured body. 
The fact that neuralgic headaches are overcome by the outer influ- 
ence of magnetism, is not of itself sufficient to prove extensive 
powers. One swallow does not make the springtime. 

Power in business is founded upon the same laws that 
have been repeatedly stated in this volutin'. To restate them 
would be to rewrite the book. The firsi essentia] is a Btock of mag- 
netism of enduring force, such as is derived from the practice of the 
exercises of the first volume. The confusion that inevitably attends 
the career of an active business man, and which may sooner or later 
unfit him for any other duties, should be conquered. Calmness, 
peace, will, determination, and every social charm that can be ac- 
quired, should be used. Never fretted, never made angry by the 
angularities of his customers, always conciliatory and pleasant, al- 
ways bound to please, even when patience ceases to be a virtue, al- 
ways honest in his dealings, and bright enough to see that the whole- 
salers do not impose dishonest goods upon him, he cannot help suc- 
ceeding if he is magnetic. He should be prompt in his correspond- 
ence, never allowing a minute to pass unnecessarily when an answer 
is needed; for it takes no more time to be prompt than to lag behind, 
and he should make the wishes of his customers paramount to his 
own, when he can properly do so. Honesty pays a larger dividend 
in this age of trickery than any other quality. 

Power in social relations is purely magnetic, and always 
derived from this art. Wealth and rank may force the leadership 
over others, but it is a following of sycophants that will permit it. 
There are requisites of admission into every set, into every clique, 
into every circle; sometimes these are titles and wealth; sometimes 
ancestry or birth; sometimes merit, office, fame or style; but the 
queen of women is always the possessor of charms of personality, 
whether she belong to the upper or to the humbler caste. So with 
true men who win recognition in society. We have Bhown the pos- 
sibility of merit alone rising out of the lowest scale and taking the 
possessor to the highest plane, even amid wealth and rank, while 
neither came to lend aid. Thebest governed by the most 

sensible rules, and it is to the credit of some circles In every part oi." 



504 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

the civilized globe that they place no "barrier against the entrance of 
worth, unattended by any other quality. 

Power over the opposite sex has been referred to so 
often in this volume that we need devote no large space to it here, 
except to take a glance at its opposite side. We believe in the law 
of affinity by which one ideal, schooled in magnetism, will eventu- 
ally find one of the opposite sex that nature and destiny have in- 
tended for each other; although fate steps in too often and ties the 
knot otherwise. Too many men have married too soon, or have 
not succeeded in welding that chain that should have bound them 
to another. Too many women have also been mis-mated. There 
is now no remedy. Maintain the marriage relation at all hazards, 
and make of your counterparts all that you would have found in 
your ideals. Much has been said in previous pages of this volume 
on the same subject. 

What we now wish to say upon the matter of power 
over the opposite sex is on its reverse side, the attempt of a person of 
superior magnetism to rob a lesser individual of chastity. It is 
supposed that the man or male is always the aggressor; but this is 
far from being true, as it is also untrue that no female is in danger 
if she does not give some kind of invitation to the opposite 
sex. Leaving out of the question the class that plies the profession 
of unchastity, we need only refer to the others who are innocent in 
toto, and to those who are bad sub rosa. When one of the 
last-named class meets another of the same class, and there is doubt 
as to the fact of virtue, either may avoid the needed suggestion and 
so pass by untrammeled; or either may take the initiative. One is 
as likely to do so as the other. The man, fearing to make a mis- 
take, looks for some sign or signal. The woman, hating to be de- 
spised if she should reveal her nature to one who would not wish her 
company, will likewise be wary. Thinking herself correct in the 
opinion she forms of the man, she throws out a hint that is capable 
of being construed either way, in case a turn is necessary. This is 
the moment of her fall, though not of the first she has experienced. 
The man accepts the hint as a challenge, with some bit of conduct 
that he can explain on either side of the fence on which both are 
poised; and, these preliminaries over, the toboggan is easy. The 
pivotal point may be assumed by either; the man gets some cue from 
the woman in most cases; while the woman acts on the theory that 
every man is vulnerable. 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF SPECIAL POWER 505 

If honor is a tawdry jewel there ifi nothing on which to 
base the use of magnetism. No person will exert an influence to 
do some thing iliat is not desired in his own heart There is no 
glory in conquering the virtue of one who has it for sale or loan. 
There is only shame in throwing a magnetic influence over an in- 
nocent human being, with the purpose of despoiling the one chief 
charm of life. But there is both glory and honor in winning the 
heart and mind of one who is worth the battle and who resists the 
victor, if won for marriage. We arc proud of those of our students 
who have taken Cupid by the car, thrust him aside and leveled their 
own shafts of love at the hearts of unwilling mortals. A wife or a 
husband who has been lassoed by magnetism has never been lost. 
It is the only cord that never breaks in marriage. Many notable 
cases have been cited in previous realms of this book. 

Power in temptation is the needed friend of the honest 
girl who is unable to withstand the magnetism of some man who 
seeks her virtue. We believe that our students are incapable of 
such defilement; but there are men everywhere who have some small 
degree of native magnetism, just enough to overpower the girl. It 
is useless to claim that the percentage is small of young women who 
are misled. The fact is quite the contrary. Every physician of 
extensive practice knows that a rather large, though relatively small, 
percentage of females have been wronged prior to the age of twelve; 
as many are likewise dealt with between that age and fifteen; then 
comes the horrible era which ranges from fifteen to twenty, in which 
more than ninety per cent, of all who are left to their own control, 
fall prey to man. Mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and husbands 
go to their graves ignorant of the evil which has been visited upon 
their loved ones. Those who see only the surface evidence will in- 
dignantly and vehemently deny this assertion. Those who know 
the facts will recognize its truth. 

There is but one remedy. There is but one aid for the 
weak who is tempted, and that is magnetism. It is well worth the 
cost, for what it saves is above all price. Let the girl learn to con- 
trol herself, not by the empty boast that she can always take care 
of herself, for this vaunting is a bubble that some certain man can 
prick at the first glance of the eye. Let her study the full course of 
magnetism, and fortify herself especially under the realm of the 
will as presented in this volume, and she need not fall. Not even 
the promise of marriage, affirmed in hot tears and indented with 



506 



UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 



burning kisses, can unbalance that power which she thus acquires. 
So in all temptations the rule of safety is the same. It is, and ha3 
been, the tower of strength to those young men, and older men 
too, who have fallen into lines of evil and are likelv to vield. 

Power in self-cures should be studied very thoroughly, 
as it is by far the most certain of all means of removing disease, 
if there is a basis, in the shape of nutrition, to work upon. Xearly 
all disease is due to foreign matter in the system, coming in 
through adulterations in the food or a wrong selection of drinking 
fluid. All this is fully explained in "Ralston Gardens." The 
body must have fourteen elements daily, and in seventeen com- 
pounds. Give it more or give it less, and something will go wrong. 
The kidneys are the source of some of the most disagreeable as well 
as the most quickly fatal of maladies; yet these organs would never 
become diseased were it not for the introduction of foreign matter 
in the system. On the other hand, it is the lack of sufficient quan- 
tities of the right kind of food that causes heart failure and neu- 
ralgia; while many improper methods of cooking, combined with 
foreign matter in the diet, lead to dyspepsia, and so on through 
the whole list. 

The facts concerning the curative powers of magnetism 
are so apt to be distorted, that we prefer to first sum them up, and 
then explain them. They are as follows: 

1. One person cannot cure another poison by magnetism; the 
most that can be accomplished is to render a minimum assistance, 
which must be based upon hygienic lav 

2. One person may supply a slight amount of vitality to an- 
other through the power of magnetism: and this lias but a small 
temporary, and no permanent, virtue, unless obedience is yielded 
to hygienic laws. 

3. The erratic action of the nervous fluids that sometimes 
causes headaches or other pains, may be corrected by the magnet- 
ism of another. 

4. Self-maonetism is the most certain of all methods of cure, 
and its efficiency must depend on the proper supply of the exact 
nutrition demanded by the body. 

5. All disease represents one of three conditions: either a defi- 
ciency of nutrition in whole or in some particular part: or the in- 
troduction of foreign matter in the bodv through food, drink or 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF SPECIAL POWER 507 

drugs: or the lack of due vitality. The last-named often results 
from the first or second. In some cases, perhaps in a majority, all 
these causes are at work together. 

6. There is no way known to science, or to man, nor has there 
ever been, nor will there be any way of overcoming disease and 
curing its effects, except by rebuilding the body. 

7. As in childhood and youth, when the body grew because 
the vitality was excessive, so in maturity a fullness of vitality is 
needed to maintain the daily waste and rebuild the system with 
new and perfect material; and this process of rebuilding must occur 
faster than the ordinary waste of the body. 

8. Artificial magnetism cannot supply vitality. Life springs 
from its own impulses, not from those that are thrust upon it. 
The more dependence is placed upon outward influences, the less 
the life of the body will generate its own vitality. 

9. Self-magnetism is the source of the greatest and most buoy- 
ant life. 

These are facts that have been proved times without 
number in the cure of disease; and on the other hand, is the per- 
verted doctrine of magnetic healers, who claim that they are able 
to produce sleep, cure pain, and accomplish other results by this 
power, when the fact is that much of their work is hypnotic. The 
best opinions are decidedly against the use of this degrading power 
to cure disease, and we have found many potent reasons why it 
should not be employed, wbtich have been stated in the earlier 
realms of this book. Do not let us be misunderstood as to the 
value of magnetism itself in curing ordinary pains, headaches and 
any disorder that is due to an erratic action of the nerves; but there 
is a vast difference between a disorder and a disease. Self-magnet- 
ism is the proper agency for curing the latter, and this must have 
for its basis the same regime that rebuilds a diseased body. In 
fact, the latter process is often impossible or very slow when un- 
aided by self-magnetism. 

The practice of curing headaches in others is valuable 
as a means of testing your growing magnetism, and we shall review 
some of this power, at the same time asking you not to confound 
so slight a disorder as headache with any disease. You may con- 
trol another person by the voice, the eye or the touch in this ex- 
periment, which is a very simple affair. If discrimination were 
to be made, the relative value of each would be stated as follows: 



508 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

The eye's power is generally the strongest, and is rated at 100 per 
cent, in value, the voice at 80 per cent., the touch at 60 per cent., 
the eye and voice at 180 per cent., the eye and touch at 160 per 
cent., the eye, voice and touch at 240 per cent. 

Some persons have a more magnetic touch than 
others; and some have on hand a crude supply of touch magnetism 
furnished by nature, while the eye and voice may not possess any 
appreciable quantity. In grasping a person's hand it is better to 
hold the body, arm and hand dead still, while the nerves are ex- 
* ceedingly tense. The mind may say what it will, either silently 
or openly. The touch is capable of accomplishing many physical 
effects, and the exhibition is most satisfactory. It is a pleasant 
evidence of the power of generating animal electricity. The fingers 
can arouse and give escape to more magnetism than any other part 
of the body in the way of touch. The balls, or the very tips, of 
the fingers are the best points of escape, but only slightly better 
than the palms. It is well to remember this in attempting to re- 
move pain from others. 

The capture of the belief of a sick person is a valuable 
aid to his being cured. Confidence in yourself, free from a con- 
sciousness of it, is the surest way of obtaining his confidence. ISTo 
being should be forced into any belief against his will. These 
combinations in you and your patient open the way to the exercise 
of curative powers. Then comes the necessity of using the mental 
assertion, of which so much has been said in previous realms of 
this volume. Direct your whole mind upon the patient, and make 
use of the following inward observation: "I am sure you believe 
I can remove this pain," or some similar expression. There are 
many cases where an attempt to cure in this way would be entirely 
useless. While it is possible, it is grossly improbable, that such 
a method as that of personal magnetism could effect a cure of a 
dangerous illness, and it would be criminal to neglect to call in a 
physician at such a time. 

The only illness that a person ever ought to attempt to 
cure by magnetism is such as would be considered too trivial to 
require the immediate aid of a physician. We make these remarks 
because persons often acquire considerable power, and this leads 
them into the belief that tliej are infallible. There comes times 
to all of us when the nervous system is unmanageable, and its mag- 
netism unreliable. These times are few, however; but even at our 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF SPECIAL POWERB 509 

best we are fallible. The method of checking the violent escape 
of electricity may be effected by either medicine or magnetism. If 
by the former, the flow is conteracted by exciting a lesser degree of 
it somewhere else, thereby establishing an equilibrium until nature 
restores the normal condition. We all know that the tendency in 
nature is toward a cure of every malady. 

The same method may use magnetism only, and it is 
here that the best results are obtained. The person suffering with 
a pain in the head is still waiting for that soothing touch which, 
if directed aright, will counteract the escaping electricity of the 
patient. Imagine yourself a battery (with plenty of power in store, 
capable of directing it at will), seated before a suffering friend, 
who is no battery worth mentioning, having no power to direct, 
but losing it all, and that loss caused by some pressure on the 
nerves, or some irritation of them that excites a violent escape of 
the vital fluid. You have to overcome this violent loss. You will 
have done well if you restore the loss to its every-day or ordinary 
escape — that which attends all nervous people. The nerves of such 
people are often very sore, without experiencing any real pain, 
showing that any escape of vitality may be slightly painful. 

It will generally suffice to cure headache to have the 
patient sit near you, your hands resting on opposite sides of his or 
her head, the balls of the fingers coursing gently over the forehead 
and scalp, from the front of the head to the back, following the 
general direction of the pain. It requires three things to make 
unequivocal cures. 

1. That you possess accumulated magnetism. 

2. That you firmly believe you can cure. 

3. That you so express yourself mentally during the process 
of the attempt. 

An active mind will be able to direct the course of the 
magnetic current down the arms and out of the balls of the fingers 
into the very nerves of the patient. In many cases the escape of 
vitality is overcome at once by the counter current. The cure is 
instantaneous. In others the escaping vitality is checked gradually. 
The reports of cures are so numerous that it is useless to attempt 
to select any for publication. The students of advanced magnet- 
ism, unless grossly careless, have been uniformly successful. 

The voice may always aid the magnetic touch, by 
speaking in soft, gentle, low and sympathetic tones. Holding the 



510 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

palm oyer the part affected by the pain is sometimes 1 quick in its 
results. The whole palm should touch, and very lightly. In touch- 
ing other parts than the head, and in coursing the balls of the 
fingers gently over these parts, but one direction should be taken. 
Rubbing back and forth will only warm the body, not magnetize 
it. Eub always in the same direction. Do not reverse, but bring 
the hand back through the air, and so continue. All movements 
along the arm or hand should be toward the shoulder, following 
the line of pain; all on the legs should be toward the hips, and gen- 
erally toward the spinal column. 

$ & 

¥* 523 B 

i m 

The power of the imagination may deplete the 
magnetism, or invite hypnotic belief. 

This is the 523d Ealston Principle. It is not the effect of mag- 
netism on the body, but the effect of the imagination over all else, 
and thus the law is different from any yet presented. You may 
know of many instances of the use of this force. We can do 
nothing better than to cite the case of a celebrated French physician 
of Paris, author of many excellent works on the force of imagina- 
tion, being desirous to add experimental to his theoretical knowl- 
edge, who made application to the minister of justice, to be allowed 
an opportunity of proving what* he asserted by an experiment on a 
criminal condemned to death. The minister, by order of the Em- 
peror, delivered over to him an assassin who had been born of difc- 
tinguished parents. The surgeon visited the prison and told the 
unfortunate man that several distinguished persons had taken an in- 
terest in his family, and had obtained permission of the minister 
that he should suffer deaili in some less disgraceful way than on the 
public scaffold, thereby saving the feelings of his family, and that 
the easiest death would be by blood-letting. 

The criminal gladly agreed to the proposal. At the 
time appointed the physicians repaired to the prison, and the crim- 
inal being extended on the table, his eyes were then securely bound, 
and he was slightly pricked near the principal veins of the legs and 
arms with the point of a pin. At the comers of the table were 
placed little fountains or basins filled with warm water, from which 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF SPECIAL POWERS 511 

poured several streams falling into tubs placed an the floor to re- 
ceive the water. The poor criminal thinking it was his blood that 
trickled down Lis arms and legs, into the tubs, became weaker and 
fainter by degrees. The remarks of the medieal gentlemen present 
in reference to the pretended quality and appearance of the blood 
increased the delusion, and he spoke more and more faintly, until 
his voice was at length scarcely heard. The profound silence in the 
apartment, and the constant dripping of the water, bad so extraor- 
dinary an affect on the brain of the patient, that all his vital energies 
were soon gone, although a very strong man, weighing one hundred 
and ninety-five pounds, and he was dead in one hour and forty min- 
utes, without having lost a single drop of blood. 

A gentleman having led a company of young children 
beyond their usual journey, they began to weary and cried to him 
to carry them; which, from their number, he could not do, but he 
told them he would provide them with horses to ride on. Then 
cutting little sticks, he gave one to each, and providing a larger one 
for himself, he bestrode it; whereupon they straddled each their 
stick and rode home without the least complaint. 

The religious fanatic and the martyr to political ex- 
citement have exhibited resistance to physical agents to a degree of 
inflexibility most incredible. The Shakers believe that, in their 
trances and visions, their souls visit the heavenly world. In this 
state the lancet has been applied to them, and their flesh scarified 
without producing a particle of blood. This will plainly show the 
power the mind exercises over the physical system, or in other words, 
over the body, and its great influence in producing a cure in many 
diseases. 

Dr. A. T. Thompson, of London, an eminent man in his 
profession, related many highly interesting cases of this nature. " I 
give you a case," said the doctor, "as an illustration of the control 
of the mind over the operations of medicine, where the whole effects 
must have been induced through the nervous agency, modifying the 
functions of the organs concerned. A lady was laboring under an 
affection of the bowels, attended with severe pain and the most ob- 
stinate costiveness. She was bled, the warm bath used, and admin- 
istered with injections and anodynes, but without the least effect 
upon the bowels, and without affording any relief from pain. At 
length the physician was informed that she had expressed her con- 
viction, that if her usual medical attendant, who was then in the 



512 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

country, and alone understood her constitution, could be called, she 
would be relieved. This physician was accordingly sent for, and on 
his arrival, although no change either of measures or medicines was 
resorted to her bowels were quickly moved, sleep and entire relief 
of pain followed, and in a few days she was perfectly well." 

Dr. James has related a case communicated to him by 
the late Professor Coleridge, which strikingly illustrates the power 
of the imagination in relieving diseases. As soon as the powers of 
nitrous oxide were discovered, Dr. Beddoes of the London Hospital, 
at once concluded that it must necessarily be a specific for paralysis 
or palsy. A patient was selected for the trial, and the management 
was intrusted to Sir Humphrey Davy. Previous to the administra- 
tion of the gas, he inserted or placed a small pocket thermometer 
under the tongue of the patient, as he was accustomed to do on such 
occasions, to ascertain the degree of animal temperature with a view 
to future comparison. 

The paralytic man, wholly ignorant of the nature of 
the process to which he was about to be submitted, but deeply im- 
pressed with the representation of Dr. Beddoes as to the certainty 
of success, no sooner felt the thermometer under his tongue 
than he concluded that the gas was in full operation, and 
in a burst of enthusiasm, declared that he already experi- 
enced the effect of its benign influence throughout his whole body. 
The opportunity was too tempting to be lost. Davy cast an intelli- 
gent look at Coleridge, and desired the patient to call again on the 
following day. The man again called at the appointed time, when 
the same ceremony was performed, and repeated each succeeding 
day for a fortnight; the patient gradually improving during that 
period, when he was dismissed as cured, no other application having 
been used. 

Professor Woodhouse, in a letter to Dr. Mitchell, of 
New York, has given a recital which also tends to show what singu- 
lar effects can be caused if the imagination be previously and duly 
prepared for the production of wonders. At the time that the 
nitrous oxide excited almost universal attention, several persons 
were exceedingly anxious to breathe gas, and the professor adminis- 
tered to them ten gallons of atmospheric air, in doses of from four 
to six quarts. Impressed with the belief that they were inhaling 
the nitrous oxide, quickness of the pulse, dizziness, vertigo, diffi- 
culty of breathing, great anxiety about the breast, a sensation sirn- 



V 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF SPECIAL POWER& 513 

ilar to that of swinging, faintness, restlessness of the knees and 
nausea, or sickness of the stomach, which tasted from Bix to eight 
hours were produced — symptoms entirely caused by the breathing 
of nothing but common air under the influence of an excited imag- 
ination, 

| 534 1 

A magnetic brain may separate the senses from the 
body. 

This is the 524th Ealston Principle. The body of flesh and 
bone is the product directly and indirectly of the vegetable king- 
dom, and its functions are inherited from that realm. Trees breathe 
by their leaves; the body by its lungs; plants grow by the circulation 
of their life-fluid, the sap; the body grows by the circulation of its 
life-fluid, the blood; plants, trees and all get nutrition by the diges- 
tive action of their root fibres; the body gets nutrition by the diges- 
tive action of the nerve fibres of the stomach, exactly reproducing 
the work of the root fibres, which is selection and absorption into 
the life-fluid. Thus we possess a vegetable body, called flesh as an 
easier means of expression. But we have five senses, emanating 
from the head, while the tree has no head and no senses. Its exist- 
ence is fundamental; so is ours, except for the addition of the senses. 

To be able to separate the senses from the vegetable 
body is an attribute which, it seems, only the great men and women 
of the world have possessed. It should be acquired by all. The 
exercise of the will-power in that direction, aided by the experienced 
use of proper magnetic lines, will accomplish the desirecf result. 
History merely repeats itself over and over again in the lives of the 
great men and women, as far as this power is concerned. Nearly all 
the biographies of the truly great mention this as a gift. Napoleon 
could charge his mind with any subject he pleased, and instantly 
discharge all thought of it. He never worried. In the midst of the 
most terrible wear and tear of anxious, nervous thought he could 
select any period of the day or night for sleep, and slumber for an 
exact time. This has been stated as true of scores of others. Gen- 
eral Butler, when tired by a too long continued mental strain, coul-.l » 
step into a private room and sleep at will. '^Excuse me for twent 
minutes/* he would say; then disappear. Iu ten seconds he wa 



514 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

snoring. In nineteen minutes more he was awake. In twenty 
lie appeared bright and new, as though refreshed by a full night's 
rest. 

The most singular instance of the power of the will over 
the functions of the body, and taken altogether, perhaps, the most 
remarkable case on record, being supported by the most unquestion- 
able testimony, is related by Dr. Cheyne, in his English Malady, 
pages 308-310. The case is that of Hon. Cornel Townshend, who 
for many years had suffered from an organic disease of the kidney-, 
from which he was greatly emaciated. He was attended by Dr. 
Cheyne, Dr. Baynard, and the distinguished surgeon, Dr. Skine, 
three of the most eminent men in England. These gentlemen were 
sent for, in great haste, early one morning, to witness a singular 
phenomenon, or strange case. 

He told them he had for some time observed an odd 
sensation by which, if he composed himself, he could die or expire 
when he pleased, and by an effort come to life again. The medical 
gentlemen were opposed, in his weak state, to witness the experi- 
ment, but he insisted upon it, and the following is Dr. Cheyne's ac- 
count: We all three felt his pulse first; it was distinct though 
small and thready, and his heart had its usual beating. He 
composed himself on his back and lay in a still posture for 
some time; while I held his right hand, Dr. Baynard laid his 
hand upon his heart, and Dr. Skine held a clean looking- 
glass to his mouth. I found his pulse sink gradually until, 
at last, I could not feel any by the most exact and nice touch 
Dr. Baynard could not feel the least emotion in his heart, nor 
Dr. Skine see the least soil of breath on the looking-gl 
We then each of us held to his lips the glass several times, examined 
his pulse, heart and breath, and eoitld not by the closest scrutiny 
discover the least symptom of life in him. We reasoned a long time 
on his strange, odd appearance, as well as we could, and all of us 
confessed it unaccountable, and beyond our power to explain 
strange and inexplicable a case. He still continued in that condi- 
tion, and we concluded that he had indeed carried the experiment 
too far, and at last being quite satisfied he was dead, we were about 
to leave him. He had continued in this situation about half au 
hour, it being then nine o'clock in the morning, in autumn, when, 
just as we were leaving, we observed some motion about the body; 
and, upon further examination, found his pulse, and the motion of 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF SPECIAL POWER 515 

his heart gradually returning; he then began to breathe gently and 
speak softly. We were al] astonished, to the last degree, as this un- 
expected change in a man we confidently believed to be dead, and 
after some further conversation with him among ourselves, went 
away fully satisfied as to all the particulars of this astonishing case, 
but confounded and puzzled, and una Mr to form any rational 
scheme, by which to account for it. 

He afterward, several months subsequent to this 
event, tired and worn out by his mental and bodily sufferings, sent 
for his attorney, made his will, settled legacies on various servants, 
received the sacrament, and calmly and composedly expired in one 
of those extraordinary and powerful influences of the mind over the 
physical system. His body was examined and all the viscera, with 
the exception of the right kidney, which was greatly diseased, weru' 
found perfectly healthy and natural. This power of will, mani- 
fested at pleasure, is perhaps one of the most remarkable phe- 
nomena connected with the natural history of the human body. 
The distinguished Dr. Benton in his work alludes to cases of the 
same kind, and reports that the celebrated Garden Hagged could 
separate himself from his senses when he pleased. 

The health of the plant and flower, its changing shape 
and diversified form, are all dependent upon purpose, — but that 
purpose is the will of the creator. In the animal and man the ve 
etable functions are the result of the will of a Creator. The three 
brains, the cerebrum, the cerebellum, and the medulla oblongata, 
are separate purposes at work to enact the will of the being, — a gift 
from the will of a Creator. In this separate will-life rests the in- 
dependent control of the body. 

The question now confronts us: "May a human 
being step in between the will of the Creator and his own life and 
body." The answer is Yes. The Creator so intended, and has 
waited patiently these many centuries for man to grasp the great 
meaning of his own existence. In moments of unreckoned mental 
dominion, the mind is seen in its sway over the body. History Lb 
full of this evidence. The whispered secret is heard but not heeded. 

That the mind has a powerful influence on health is 
well known to medical men, and in fact to all persons of observa- 
tion; and this is the reason why physicians encourage their patients. 
Not unfrequently, mental emotions, such as fear, grief, or any great 
anxiety of mind, have turned the hair gray in a single night. Man 



516 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

is more or less the creature of passion, prejudice, habit and educa- 
tion. The heart, alas! despite the stern philosophy which justice 
bids us exercise, invariably warps the understanding. Even when 
most disposed to place reliance on the impartiality of our discrimi- 
nating faculties, the sympathies and prejudices of our nature still 
triumph; the leadings of a mode of thought and reasoning, that has 
been instilled into us through training and education. This shows 
the importance of proper moral instruction, and the necessity of cor- 
rect early habits. We are also often misled by the force of imagina- 
tion. 

Some persons suffer more from pain than others ; it is 
well know that all do not bear surgical operations equally well. 
This is, doubtless, greatly dependent upon their organization, al- 
though it may be modified by habits of endurance, or on the con- 
trary, in particular diseases, depending on the condition of the 
nervous system at the time, which should be particularly and 
strictly attended to, for it is remarkably susceptible of impressions. 
The slightest motion of the muscles, the slightest breath of air, will 
often induce the most excrutiating torment where it is morbidly im- 
pressed; the operation of medicine is interfered with, and regular 
physiological action must be importantly modified. The influence 
of hope is also necessary to procure relief, and the alleviation or re- 
moval of disease is, in a great measure, dependent upon the condi- 
tion of the mind. 

The agreement between mind and body is constant. 
The administration of new medicines without possessing an^hing 
particularly novel or powerful, will frequently induce an amend- 
ment of the disease, and this is often the reason why medicine pre- 
scribed by physicians of celebrity, or professors, has been known to 
succeed better in their hands than in those of other persons. It is 
greatly the confidence and hope of the patient that works the cure. 
Disease is known to depress the powers of the understanding as well 
as the vigor of the muscular system, and will also depz*ave the judg- 
ment as well as the digestion. A sick person in particular, is ex- 
tremely credulous about the object of his hopes and fears. Whoso- 
ever promises him health, generally obtains his confidence; and this 
is the reason why so many become the dupes of quacks and patent 
medicines. 

The force of imagination, the power of fear, exercised on 
the animal economy, are admitted by every medical observer, and 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF SPECIAL POWERS 517 

indeed by every one of common sense; and the limits to which their 
operations are to be assigned, ao one can designate. This subject 
is of great importance to the medical man, it' he wishes to practice 
successfully; and how very much is it to he regretted that so little 
attention is paid to this important subject, the iniiuence of the mind 
upon the vital functions. Research in such a field of inquiry would 
display many phenomena, which in ancient times were attributed 
to supernatural causes, and latterly to magnetic and other causes, 
which might be satisfactorily referred to the operations of the nerv- 
ous system alone, without the supervention of other agencies. The 
modus operandi is not understood and the opinions entertained by 
distinguished physiologists are various. The operations of the 
moral feelings and emotions in the production of corporeal diseases 
are far from being yet understood, and hundred have died from fear 
during the prevalence of the cholera who would have been living at 
this time had they possessed moral courage. 

Poor human nature ! How fearfully does it deceive itself 
when it flies to drugs to relieve every disease ! Look into our large 
and commercial cities, where more work is done with the head than 
with the hands; where every kind of food for the passions is not only 
superabundant in quantity, but of the most stimulating quality, 
and thousands who never labor at all, are found who, through the 
unnatural degree of excitement kept up in the brain and nervous 
system, and the full play of the passions, bring very great injury to 
their health. An attentive examination of every class of society 
will convince us, that in proportion as the intellect is highly culti- 
vated, improved, and strongly excited, the body suffers, till a period 
at length arrives when the corporeal deterioration begins to act on 
the mental powers, and the proud man finds that the elasticity even 
of the immortal mind may be impaired by pressure too long con- 
tinued, and that, like springs of baser metal, the body requires oc- 
casional relaxation and rest, instead of dosing and drugging. See 
that pale cheek, that eye that has lost its luster, that care-worn 
countenance, that languid stop, that flaccid muscle, with great 
weakness, and the indisposition to exertion, and you will behold the 
results of a mind worn down by the cares and disappointments of 
life, and a body exhibiting a faithful picture of its iniiuence upon it. 





it 



QO we inherit that sweet purity 

For which we struggled, failed, and agonized 
With widening retrospect that bred despair. 
In thoughts sublime that pierced the night like stars, 
And with their mild persistence urge man's scq\x\\ 
To vaster issues." 




(519) 



REALM TEN 




" I SAW two clouds at morning, 
■ Tinged by the rising sun, 
And in the dawn they floated on, 

And mingled into one ; 
I thought that morning cloud was blessed, 
It moved so sweetly to the west." 




THE ESTATE 

or 



EXALTATION 



"UER veil revealed 

The beauty of her face, which, half concealed 
Behind ifs thin blue folds, showed like the moon 
Behind a cloud that will forsake if soon. 
Her hair was braided darkness, but fhc glance 
Of lightning eyes shot from her countenance." 






ii 



TO him no vain regrets belong, 

Whose soul, that finer instrument, 
Gave to the world no poor lament, 
But wood-notes ever sweet and strong, 
O lonely friend! he still will be 
A potent presence, though unseen,— 
Steadfast, sagacious, and serene: 
Seek not for him,— he is with thee." 



' \ LAS! we think not what we daily see 

About our hearths— angels, that are to be, 
Or may be, if they will, and we prepare 
Their souls and ours to meet in happy air— 
A child, a friend, a wife whose heart sings 
In unison with ours, breeding its future wings." 



'FACH flower the dews have lightly wet, 

And in the sky the stars are met, 
And o\\ the wave is deeper blue, 
And o\\ the leaf a browner hue, 
And in the heaven that clear obscure, 
So softly dark, and darkly pure, 
Which follows the decline of day, 
As twilight melts beneath the moon away.' 



(520) 



THE ESTATE 

or 



EXALTATION 




PE5T! This little Fountain runs 
Thus for aye:— it never stays 
Tor the look of summer suns, 
Nor the cold of winter days. 
Whosoe'er shall wander near, 

When the Syrian heat is worst. 
Let him hither come, nor fear 
Lest he may not slake his thirst.'' 




WINGS of influence far overspreading the sky, -pan the 
mighty realm wherein man has sought to peer since first 
he knew his relation to the universe that canopies him. 
Shut in on this earth with all its dangers, he hopes for 
some destiny that shall separate him from the rolling ball on 
whose crust he clings. He Bees life made up of the material 
that lies on the ground beneath his feet, and operated by the 
forces that come from the snn. So ignorant is he of the laws 
that govern the universe that he does not know where the 
parent orb of the solar system had its origin, or whence it re- 

(521) 



522 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

eeives its vital-supply. He believes that, if he were given wings 
with which to fly a billion miles in each billionth-part of a second, 
he could scour the heavens from one extreme to the other, going 
through all the heights, the depths and breadths, and find nothing 
but suns and solar systems. 

If it is true that we see all there is of the universe in 
kind though not in extent, then the powers that make, keep and 
control it are diffused and scattered, and suns are gods, and gods 
are beings of fire. But if it is not true, then heaven and the abode 
of God are designedly hidden from our little dot in the sky, and only 
His presence pervades matter. There is no such thing as an exist- 
ence suspended in empty space, apart from the architectural struc- 
ture of the universe. The home of the Pailer is somewhere or every- 
where. All forces operate on the material; they are powerless to 
find leverage except in matter. The clay is not far distant when 
science will declare that the ether which fills space and is omnipres- 
ent within all gases, liquids and solids, is all there is of spiritual ex- 
istence; being capable of containing and transmitting every influ- 
ence hitherto known. 

Magnetism lives in ether; and leaps its bounds under 
pressure to seek release through more solid lines of matter. The 
water-sea that encompasses our continents is more free than the 
earth and its minerals; the aereial-sea that bathes the planet is 
lighter yet; but the ether-sea, itself expanded matter, is freedom 
idealized. Strike the water into waves, and their highest speed is 
childishly slow compared with the undulations of air that rive the 
wind; yet both give way before the flight of ethereal fire that counts 
its millions of miles in each minute of time. The sun is close 
enough to the earth to almost scorch it, yet sound would require 
fourteen years to pass from this earth to that orb. We regard the 
railway train that moves at an average speed of forty miles an hour 
as the embodiment of high speed; but if it were to maintain this 
swiftness night and day without ceasing, it would require 263 years 
in which to reach the sun. It travels at the rate of forty miles an 
hour; light goes nearly two hundred thousand miles a second, and 
would reach the sun in about eight minutes. 

This speed is all too slow for thought, and much too 
slow for feeling. Yet within the mind's mind there is another kind 
of thought, another kind of feeling, far more subtle and intense than 
the conscious faculties are able to detect, that sends its messages 



REAL M OF TEE I > 7 1 7 B OF E \ \ LI 1 7 /o V 523 

many millions of miles in every millionth pari of a second, and 
catches answers ere the vibrations cease; which must require a more 
sensitive ether-sea for Its transmissions. A.8 mental m< - and 

impressions seem to require no time whatever, it is possible that 
they are received at any distance the instant they are created. I' 
not reasonable to suppose that God must wait for knowledg , i en 
though it comes from the farthest limit ol' -pace. The discussion of 
what the universe is, of its height as compared with its o1 her relal 
dimensions of length and breadth, and the nature of the abodes 
within its central spaces, together with questions that are nec< 
sarily involved in that connection, may be found amply set forth in 
the highest degree book of this series, namely, All Existence. We 
are now to consider man's relation to the general forces beyond those 
of commonplace life. 

H 

525 j| 

There are superhuman realms of power. 

This is the 525th Ralston Principle. By superhuman we mean 
but one thing; that is, beyond the uses of the ordinary senses. We 
do not mean to refer to the claims of spiritualism. The proofs are 
abundant that such a realm does not exist, for the reason that every 
manifestation can be traced to some activity of the ether-sea. The 
superhuman need not necessarily exclude the grander nature that 
co-exists with the human. Man is composed of his body and its 
forces; the former being the tools of the latter. The forces 
are vital when they relate to mere physical expression; they 
are mental in thought only; yet the blending of the two are 
needed in so simple a range of faculties as may be seen in the use 
of the senses. By these channels all things are known, felt and ex- 
perienced; and from them all reasoning proceeds. The deep 
thought is but a divergence or expansion of an idea founded upon 
somebody's sense-impression. 

Despite the deep veiling that obscures the faculties 
that exist apart from the ordinary senses, they arc well recognized a*3 
actual agent* of life, which, for some reason, have never been openly 
visible to the common gaze. A.9 they have come to manifest them- 
selves from time to time, their Btrangeness and Lnfrequency of occur- 
rence have produced alarm. Being superhuman, they have hen at 



524 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

once associated with, the only thing which man had ever regarded as 
superhuman; so the theories and supposed complete proofs of spirit- 
ualism, occultism and what else, were immediately founded, only to 
be foundered when the breath had returned and sense could be sum- 
moned to the investigation. 

As we proceed we shall see the proofs of powers, long 
associated with the ordinary faculties, but which have always been 
partners at least with the superhuman, and these grow into others 
without limit. Man may be a creature of dust, but magnetism is 
not of earth. The sun that holds these mighty orbs to its heart by 
a chain of influence great beyond comparison, sends to all life such 
share of that influence as each individual is able to use, and 
the power behind the sun lives in and through the endowments that 
have been transmitted to earth by the varied vitalities of that orb, 
giving us the clew to possibilities yet unrealized. As we proceed to 
unfold the plot of destiny, light is always growing more intense, and 
new domains loom up in the distance. Over the horizon of hope 
the skies hang brightening into rosy gleams of promise. 



| 526 | 

The ether-sea reaches every realm of power and 
washes the shore of Heaven. 

This is the 526th Ealston Principle. This law is fully recog- 
nized by science, and has no doubters except so far as the latter por- 
tion of the principle is concerned. It is true that science does not 
recognize either the existence or non-existence of heaven, as under- 
stood in religious theories. It is not material, either as to whether 
such admission is made or not, or as to the kind of heaven that may 
exist in the sky. If it is not in some special section of the universe, 
it is everywhere; for no person of sense believes that the great sys- 
tem that is perfected in space is without government, and whatever 
governs it is located somewhere or everywhere, and that is what 
mean by heaven, for the purposes of this principle. We have fixed 
scientific reasons for believing that heaven is specially located, and 
is not a scattered or diffused presence, which reasons will be amply 
stated in the forthcoming volume, All Existence. It has no place 
or part in this book. 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF EXALTATIOH 525 

Having proved that heaven exists in fact, the prin- 
ciple which say.- that the ether-sea reaches every realm of power and 
washes the shore of heaven, is a self-evident truth. No well read 
person, whose attention has been called to this subject, denies the 

omnipresence of the ether-sea The Ion-' exploded Newtonian 
theory of the materiality of flight made that force a molecular activ- 
ity, not realizing the extreme thinness of tin; ether. The attempts 
to concentrate the atoms of which ether i- composed and redi 
them to matter, was just as senseless as would be the effort to con- 
dense the atmosphere by focusing the sound. No matter how much 
loudness may be compressed into a small space, nor how many voices, 
horns and whistles may be directed and reflected upon a given spot, 
the air is not increased in bulk by this excess of sound, and the same 
is true of the ether. While the Newtonian theory of the material 
nature of light is denied to-day because of the inability of experi- 
ments to collect light and turn it into matter, the fact of the exist- 
ence of the ether-sea is universally admitted. 

As such a sea exists, and as it fills all the universe, even 
to the outermost limits of occupied space, there can be no doubt that 
it is omnipresent within those limits. Being so, it must connect the 
kind of heaven we have mentioned with all the suns and planets. 
This proposition is of immense importance. It tells us that there is 
a means of direct communication between our earth and all the orbs 
of the sky; with heaven itself, with God, the angels and the souls of 
those who still live, although not in form visible to the eye of flesh. 
The importance of the fact goes much further than our first 
thought would carry it, and here we come to the serious part of the 
present realm. There is within the human breast a reverberating 
chord of sympathetic union with the powers beyond. There is in 
every life some evidence of superhuman faculties ever at work seek- 
ing to make the story plain. Time brings new steps in the progress 
of mind and matter, and there is nothing in the universe that is 
capable of standing still. 



" For I shall feel the sting of ceaseless pain 
If there I meet thr gentle presence not ; 
Nor hear the voice I love, nor read again 
In thr serenes/ eves the tender thought." 



526 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

^ ?k 

t 527 I 

$ I 

As evil and good are everywhere present, so the 
sub-conscious faculty has two opposite extremes. 

This is the 527th Balston Principle. It is not possible to find 
good unless evil exists as its opposite pole. There is this exact neg- 
ative of every quality of the mind, of the body, of the heart. Man 
steers clear of one by taking his course toward the other. The san- 
ity of the mind has its opposite nature in mental unsoundness; the 
health of the flesh is threatened by disease; love counterbalances 
hate; hope, despair; pride, shame; resolution, fear; excitement, de- 
pression; day has its night; winter, its summer; spring, its autumn; 
the flowers, its weed; food, its poison; the bird, the reptile; 
the church, the saloon; the Bible, the press; heaven, hell; God, the 
devil; and it need not surprise us to find in so powerful an influence 
as magnetism its opposite pole in hypnotism; and that the sub-con- 
scions faculty is likewise built of two extremes. 

There can be no communication from one point to 
another, from one mind to another, or from one being to another 
that is not carried on by means of an agency. Influence cannot leap 
the clear gulf of nothing. When hypnotism puts the conscious 
mind to sleep and arouses the sub-conscious faculty in its basest 
form, it places those who are with the subject in communication 
with scenes, thoughts and impressions that are not approachable 
through the ordinary channels of life. Surprise follows; for it is 
most natural to wonder at unusual occurrences. We call such 
hypnotic subject a medium because the consciousness of others is 
brought into connection with the doings of the realm of apparent 
mystery, and we call the process clairvoyance, because the sub-con- 
scious faculty is endowed with a sight that peers through matter as 
though it did not exist. But all this extraordinary power must at : 
upon something; it requires an agency, and what water is to the bil- 
lows, and air to sound, so the ether-sea is to thought and feeling. 
A vision of the eye travels the immense vault of heaven, seeing the 
remote stars in a second of time, because their waves of light wait 
already upon the gaze. So a glance of the eye within the mind of 
sub-consciousness travels all distance immediately, making use of 
the ether-sea in some one of its many functions. 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF EXALT AT I Ob 527 

We have said that this ether washes the -lion.' of 

heaven. It is needless to discuss in this volume where* else its wa\ 
proceed, or what influence, worlds or peoples they connect us with, 
for these interesting questions are fully considered in our advanced 
books; they have no place in this volume. What does concern us 
now is the fact that there is such a thing as the sub-conscious fac- 
ulty; also the further fact that it is called clairvoyance when de- 
veloped by self-hypnotism or by the hypnotic influence of others. 
All science admits these things. Neither of these propositions is in 
dispute. Then comes the long search into the meaning of such a 
power, and a thorough examination of its products to see what is the 
fruitage of the remarkable faculty. 

For a long time science let it alone; then came the 
spasmodic efforts to test the genuineness of the clairvoyants, and the 
discovery that most of them were pretenders; after which the matter 
lapsed, and the experiments were conducted in a manner calculated 
only to arouse further doubts. In late years the claim that spirits 
were talking through these clairvoyants led to a fixed belief in the 
existence of a world of diembodied souls that were waiting some- 
where for something to turn up. "Without a single item of proof, 
with the absence of all logical reasoning, these claimants have 
leaped the gulf between facts, and have come to the totally 
unwarranted conclusion that whatever cannot be explained un- 
til one knows how to explain it must be proof absolute of a 
spirit world. That, with the supposed abundance of evidence 
at hand, the vast majority of mankind and all true scientists 
refuse to be convinced of the existence of such a world, is suf- 
ficient to show what little progress the claim has made, and 
the fact that the following of that erratic creed was greatest 
soon after the close of the civil war, and has been on the wane since 
science is now learning how to explain the phenomena, is indicative 
of the fate of spiritualism among the intelligent classes. All crazy 
doctrines will find followers among the weak-minded, and brainy 
charlatans will lead them on for greed. 

To-day all science is changed in its views of the 
clairvoyant power. That it really exists is admitted. The univers- 
ities of the world, including all the greatest as well as the more 
humble, not only admit the fact, but have established departments 
of education which include the treatment of this subject under the 
head of psychology; and eminent investigators in every civilized 



528 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

country are banded together in societies of research, endeavoring lo 
gather more facts and get more light on the meaning of the phe- 
nomena. One of the most careful of scientists recently said: "I 
have been associated with others for twenty years, seeking to find an 
explanation of the existence of the sub-conscious faculty and all the 
gain that has been made is in the accumulating of proof. Nothing 
new has been added. By accumulating the proof, I mean that we 
have more evidence to-day of the existence of the faculty, simply be- 
cause we have acquainted ourselves with more instances of its activ- 
ity. We have confirmed into positive knowledge a former belief 
that this power was clairvoyant; but the remarkable keenness of it 
as evinced twenty or more years ago has never been surpassed by 
any subsequent evidence. It is a record of more cases, with no one 
of them rising above a certain water-mark." This statement has 
been confirmed everywhere. 

Looking at the most startling instances of this power 
as developed by hypnotism, or in any form of the trance condition, 
which is the same thing, it is impossible to find one lofty act, or one 
noble tendency in the whole business. Search may be made in 
every direction, and it will be made in vain. "What does spiritual- 
ism teach?" we asked of a score of accredited leading representatives 
of that creed, as we met them from time to time. "It teaches im- 
mortality." "Let us see the evidence." And they have made but 
two points in all their mass of testimony; the rest is unwarranted 
conclusion. The points are, first, that mediums (of a low order of 
intelligence in nineteen cases out of twenty) have revealed things 
that nobody else in the immediate companies had known; and, sec- 
ond, that the same mediums had been made to talk in the voices of 
the departed and tell where the departed were at the time, though 
in a fearfully broken, disjointed and unwilling manner. By the ad- 
mission of the "priests and apostles'' of spiritualism, these voices 
were known to somebody living to be the voices once used by the de- 
parted, or else they could not have been so identified; and the state- 
ments as to where they were as shades were contradictory and false 
on their face, showing that they might have been reflections and 
echoes of the living. Yet it is claimed that such evidence proves 
the fact of spirit-existence, and that* spirit-existence proves im- 
mortality. No grosser piece of false reasoning was ever perpetrated. 

From the statements of professional manipulators 
of clairvoyants, and from the many times confirmed assertions of 



REALM OF THE ESTATE 01 i. \ \ i.i \i /<>\ :>ZQ 

those who seek the truth honestly and for truth'e . even th< 
who believe in the conclusions which every free mind mav freely 
make, no matter hew erroneous, il is clear thai the highesl level of 
this use of the sub-conscious faculty is a very debased plane. ( > 
person, speaking frankly, says, "I am puzzled to know what the in- 
fluences are thai sometimes give such accurate information. 1 
thought they indicated e spirit-life, for they utter thai claim 
often; hut 1 see now thai they arc really reflecting the supposition 
those who are about the mediums. We all think they are spir 
and the mediums catch thai idea. Then we expecl -pints to coi 
and talk to as; and the mediums arc looking-glass* ing l^ick to 

us the contents of the room in which we sit. Then these spirits we 
believe to be those of the departed, and this the mediums refle 
Much of the talk we hear front them is losl memory stored away in 
our own minds and forgotten. What I most wish to say is that the 
use of the word hell and devil predominates in the tongue of the 
spirits." This statement ha- been many times corroborated by 
others. "There is nothing inspiring, nothing ennobling, in the u- 
of sub-consciouness as developed through hypnotism." This is the 
universal verdict. 

On the other hand, or at the other extreme, there is 
abundant and overwhelming evidence of the potency, the loftiness, 
the grandeur and exaltation of the powers that arc a— ociated with 
the higher uses of this faculty. One is debased because its plane. 
atmosphere and temperament are low, and it comes not out of the 
uplifting of the human mind, but by deadening it. We never hear 
of clairvoyance as the off-spring of magnetic wakefulness; hut al- 
ways as the dark fruitage of hypnotic sleep. The Bubjeci ever re- 
mains in ignorance of facts that pass through hi- brain, excepl as 
they are told to him after he awakes. To him it is a gloomy, joyl< 
unsatisfactory proceeding. Bui magnetism brings the better p> 
sonality into a full appreciation and consciousness of all thai tran- 
spires, and there is reward at every turn. 

Each life has some knowledge of the tendencies within 
itself toward these higher ffoals. Certainly all i- nol hound down 
to earth and the machinery of human activities. Self-experience 
has much to reporl on this subject. Apart from inward evidenc 
is the long summary of history in the lives of exceptionable nam and 
women. The world calls it genius, and that name may as well re- 
main as any other. The fad that mosl interests us i- the leap o 



530 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

of the limited conditions of human life into the fellowship of. some 
other and always better realm. The magnet is in the skies, and 
man's yearning for the superhuman is the response to its drawing 
call. 

* B 

^ ^° fit 

Exalted sub -consciousness is established by self- 
magnetism.. 

This is the 528th Ealston Principle. That there is such a con- 
dition as that described is well known. It is not only public his- 
tory, but private and individual experience also. The only doubt 
to be cleared away is that which relates to its sub-conscious associa- 
tion. This we shall proceed to discuss. There is one difficulty at 
the outset, and that is the blending of various grades of sub-con- 
sciousness in the lines of genius. What seems a contradictory con- 
dition is often met with, and, although this faculty is undoubtedly 
present in all cases of extraordinary ability, its uses are varied. It 
may be set down as an established fact that the union of magnetism 
with the sub-conscious power, is always productive of genius, not all 
of which is exalted. Then comes the necessity of defining that 
word. 

It has not been credited to any great warrior that victory 
in battle is a goal to be admired, because its attainment costs suffer- 
ing and death. So Wellington is not regarded as an exalted genius 
outside of English domains; nor Napoleon outside of France. Poe 
is regarded as a hynotized poet, since his writings were weird and 
gloomy. Byron dealt with the sensual, even though he gave birth 
to the noblest of thoughts. It is not what the work shows, nor how 
much of the human is blended into the exalted that furnishes the 
measurement of genius; nor is morality necessarily involved at all 
in such consideration. Nature has no moral code. "Thou shalt 
not steal," is an absurdity to the creatures that are taught to gQi 
their food b} r theft and murder. The supposed immorality of 
Shakespeare is never apparent outside of its reference to the sexes; 
an innocent wrong in a state of dawning civilization, and never im- 
moral until mankind agreed to call it so. Byron's enemies find no 
other fault with It is all a question of standards. 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF EXALTATION 531 

The gifts of exalted sub-consciousness are pure when 
in the condition in which they are imparled, they become gross and 
untrue only when mingled with the mind of human existem . 
What the wicked Napoleon mighl have been had he used bis powi 
of genius solely for the uplifting of mankind, we cannot tell. Win 
at war he was a glorious victor until be fell into the cataleptic con- 
dition that caused him to ride into Waterloo asleep in hie saddle 
1 1 is a scale of asceni and descent. The sub-conscious faculty, 
aroused and sustained by magnetism, makes the genius a man of 
wakefulness and a conqueror, and (he same faculty, in the same 
genius, possessed by the same individual, may slide headlong down 
the scale into the hypnotic condition of catalepsy when the bril- 
liance of the career has outshone itself. So Napoleon the Great 
was a cataleptic in thej&tcr years of his life; so the conquering 
Caesar and the battle-garlanded Alexander were cataleptics. Can ii 
be true that the mighty men and women of earth sometimes fall 
from their pinnacles, and that the fall carries them into the ex- 
treme opposite that in which their power was wielded? If so, it is 
but natural, for there are two poles to the sub-conscious world. If 
it is not true, then it seems strange that genius has so often fallen 
into catalepsy. 

A person who has acquired mechanical magnetism may 
turn it about and apply it to self, after a complete absorption of 
the principles of advanced magnetism. The realm of the will is di- 
rectly concerned in the development of this power. The goal should 
be to subject self to this acquired power, instead of turning it always 
upon others; yet it may be used freely both ways at the same period 
of one's life, though not at the same moment of time. The condi- 
tion and inconveniences of the lapse are always present, and must 
be mastered by carefully alloting the duties of the day. Thus a 
person should set apart a particular hour and location when he will 
be alone, or he will carry his lapsed state into the business o( life, 
and suffer from the imposition of others, as we have said of Webl 
and many men who do not come into full possession of their com- 
monplace faculties when swayed by others of grander scope. Ex- 
altation leads away from earth. On this every principle, every min- 
ister should live apart from the drudgery of dally existence, for each 
step upward carries him nearer to God, and gives him a more minute 
knowledge of humanity by the law o( intention. 



532 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 



S 529 If 



7$%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% fit 



Self-magnetism is the product of magnetic temper- 
ament and mental vision. 

This is the 529th Ralston Principle. "We must learn the way 
into the realm of exaltation, and the process needs to be explained. 
The habits of geniuses, especially in those periods when their power 
was developing, are valuable aids to our present understanding nf 
the subject. They were magnetic by reason of an excess of vitality 
in the nervous centers, which their habits of life turned into a posi- 
tive fund from which they drew at will. All true geniuses of real 
power have led their fcllow-beiugs because of a superior instinct 
which drew followers and commanded recognition. Merc eccen- 
tricity, that gives birth to erratic conduct, is not genius, even if some 
of its products may strike the popular fane}'. 

The habits of the great personages have been such as 
would favor the development of magnetism. The shortcomings - 
often noted are due to lack of system. Where the power lias been 
uniformly maintained, the life has been one grand highway of suc- 
cess. It so happens that every great career has been centered upon 
some leading theme and purpose. This of itselL' ai tracts the mag- 
netism into narrow and consequently powerful channels, unless the 
character is deep and broad enough to admit of wider scope. Then 
again all great personages have intuitively cultivated mental flights 
into lofty realms, and this, added to the high development of mag- 
netism, has resulted in making themselves the subjects of their own 
peculiar charms. 

What comes carelessly or accidentally out of habits, 
may be more effectually acquired by a >ysu>m of development 
founded upon the same laws. Some persons, by chance, have se- 
cured so-called gifts, and believing them to be inherited, have lost 
them by abuse or failure to nurture them. Others, seeing the su- 
preme value of such powers, have carefully studied them, and 
thereby given increase to their effectiveness. But, of all gratif} 
experiments, the most satisfactory i> that das> which depends upon 
the regularity and certainty of system. Tt is necessary to know the 
laws that are involved, ami the methods of building upon them, 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF EXALTATION 533 

after which the results rest solely upon the character of the use to 
which the faculties are put. 

The plan of this realm's development may be outlined 
as follows: As a basis it is necessary to master the first volume, which 
relates to the acquisition of mechanical magnetism. On this must 
be built the whole system of advanced magnel ism of the present vol- 
ume as far as it relates to the afnrmat i ye Bide of the art, and the neg- 
ative must be studiously avoided. All this may be accomplished as 
a matter of certainty. It is not a question of gift, but of work. No 
person need fail, unless failure is clue to lack of interest. Any in- 
dividual who will make the effort, and continue in it, may surely ac- 
quire mechanical magnetism. Then, coming into this advanced 
volume, the third realm should be read and re-read until it is mas- 
tered. Gradually its laws will be assimilated into one's life as 
regime. The same is then true of the fourth realm, and so on to 
the end. The particular principle which relates to the magnetic 
temperament is the key to this progress. Habits of daily life may 
be swung around, little by little, until they have influenced the 
whole current of magnetism, without requiring much specific 
exercise. 



I 530 jjl 

Mental vision stimulates the fancy. 

This is the 530th Balston Principle. Here we refer to the or- 
dinary plane of mental vision. It is not, for such reason, a com- 
monplace acquisition, nor is it a flight of unwarranted imagination. 
It does take the mind away from the ordinary uses of the day, away 
from the mere functions and faculties of life, away from the hard 
abstract as well as concrete thoughts of study, up into an unac- 
customed realm. In its first ascent it touches upon the well-known 
attribute of genius, which is popularly termed fancy. This is no r 
its correct name, but is the only word that conveys to the mind of 
the general reader what is meant by the idea within its compass. 

This quality is of so great a value that it should be 
fully understood. Eemembcr that we nre now dealing with the 
lowest plane of mental vision, that of the ordinary genius. It is 
occupied by large numbers of men and women in every generation 



534 



UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 



who do not succeed in climbing higher; yet who are far happier than 
the vast hordes below them. Their habits of mental vision have 
come to them by native temperament, or else through the ambition 
to acquire fame in some specialty, as in art, poetry, oratory, inven- 
tion or leadership. The study of the future years of earthly exist- 
ence, with the possibilities of triumphant achievement, necessarily 
excites the mind and leads to the building of ideals out of which 
success is to be molded. So, by the hope of making a name, the 
faculties involved in the attempt are aroused from oblivious sleep, 
are stimulated into operation and impelled onward to the conflict. 

The simplest use of mental vision is seen in effective 
conversation, as in business matters where the talker hopes to make 
his statements clear as well as convincing. Here is the law, con- 
densed from the principles of a previous division of this book: A 
person, possessing accumulated magnetism, who sees in his own 
mind a clearly defined picture of the thought he is uttering, will in \ 
every case irresistibly impress it upon his hearers. But, you ask, 
will that convince? It will make your hearers see what you see and 
feel what you feel. Of this there can be no doubt. And this is as 
far as the magnetic speakers ever seek to go. The lawyer needs no 
more; the minister's usefulness will increase 1000 per cent.; the 
act@r, adding to his dramatic education, can never be second-rate; 
and all classes of persons will find it a means of wielding great per- 
sonal power wherever the voice is employed. 

The earlier practice in mental vision should be con- 
fined to quotations of other authors. We will take a line at 
random; one from the lore of our youth. *'*The boy stood on the 
burning deck." Did you ever see a ship, or a picture of one, or read 
a description of a vessel, so that you can bring it> shape before your 
mind? If not, there can be no mental vision. Xever attempt to 
talk about anything you are not familiar with. But if your answer 
was in the affirmative, close your eyes, and do not open them until 
you can see before the mind's eyes, in the very brain, a ship. Bring | 
to your view mentally, the width, the length, the decks, the bow, the 
stern, the masts, the ropes, sails, men and all. If you are subject to 
the disease called mind-wandering, this will cure it. Who is en- 
tirely free from mind-wandering? Who at church listens to every 
word, and keeps the attention fixed upon the thoughts that are be- 
ing uttered? Lack of interest, you say. That is no excuse, and it 
is a dangerous practice to hear a part and not the whole of anything. 



REALM OF THE ESTATE 01 EXALTATION 535 

Mind-wandering is developed in that way, and once incurred is a 
pathway of intellectual ruin, often ending in softening of the brain. 



3 * " '*' 8 

| 53i 

Mental wandering destroys mental vision. 

This is the 531st Ealston Principle. The result of this malady, 
for such it must be regarded, is to cut off all of the higher powers of 
the mind, as well as to weaken that organ for every-day use. The 
author has often been called upon to treat this evil for professional 
gentlemen, and in over two thousand cases coming under his care, 
he found but two persons entirely free from mind-wandering. 
They were exceptionally brilliant and capable men and full of the 
freshness of life. Of the others (who were all unfortunate enough 
to have the disease) he succeeded in every instance in curing it. 
The result proved most satisfactory. The change in the intellectual 
calibre was quite marked. The cure was established solely by the 
exercises in mental vision. One gentleman could not, on shutting 
his eyes, perceive anything at all. Instead of keeping him on one 
exercise too long, he was carried from exercise to exercise repeatedly 
and for many weeks. At last, he began to see mentally the dim 
outlines of a ship. 

"I have it! " he exclaimed. The outlines deepened and 
finally stood out in bold relief. Moral, never give up the ship. 
Unsuccessful people try a thing a few times, do not succeed and 
throw it up in disgust. Unsuccessful people are full of disgust for 
everything, and for everybody. The fault is due to their impatience 
and their incredulity; unless, perhaps, their laziness is also in the 
case. 

Continue the exercise by closing the eyes, and again 
calling up the ship before you. What kind of a ship do you see? 
What color? Where is the boy? Do you see his face? What ex- 
pression do you see upon the face? What part of the ship is on fire? 
Do you see the curling smoke, the red and yellow flames? Are they 
near the boy? Is it night or day? Open tl and see in the air 

before you, mentally, every detail as a ailed for. as you repe 

the line orally: "The boy stood on the burning deck." 



/ 



536 , ' UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

1 532 j| 

Mental vision must bring the mind to a focus. 

This is the 532d Ealston Principle. It may be called the pos- 
itive side of the preceding law, but it means much more, as may be 
seen by examining its process. To prevent a wandering of the 
mind, its whole attention should be devoted to one subject at a time, 
even with all its branches and variations, and the thought should 
revert at every step to the main thread by which it is held to its pur- 
pose. This is all in the estate of commonplace life. 

On the other hand the exercise of the faculty under 
this principle implies, first, that it has magnetism, which is not in- 
volved in the prior law; second, that the mental flight is away from 
the range of ordinary thought: third, that it does not wander or in- 
dulge in imaginings; and, fourth, that it concentrates its full power 
upon the pith and very essence of the idea which it affects. The 
ability to bring the sub-conscious mind to a focus should not be con- 
founded with the pernicious habit of thinking upon one thing to the ' 
exclusion of other matters. This distinction is an important one 
and must be clearly understood. There is quite a difference be- 
tween looking at one spot until all else is obscured, and the one line 
of gaze has wearied the eye. I n a similar vray it is not by any means 
the same thing to cast the mind upon one idea and hold it there as 
it is to concentrate many other ideas together toward a given focus. 
In one case the mind is injured by its useless exertion: in the other 
its vision is immensely improved by the great variety of lines which 
are knitted together in one central rope of influence. 

Many theories and exercises have been invented by 
teachers of this subject, and some have founded whole systems of 
training on the one principle which is now under discussion. We 
had seen the law worked out in many ways long before we made use 
of it. One of the most common ot method- is to throw the mind ou 
any given subject to the exclusion of all ideas else, and wait for fur- 
ther development: but magnetism is not invoked and the result is 
commonplace. Thus, an artist is taught to create imagination by 
this process; to think of any theme that he wishes to develop, and 
keep his mind upon that one theme an hour at a time in the deepest 
concentration. If he is to produce an ocean, he will see the water, 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF EXALTATION 537 

the green, the blue, the waves, the crests, the billows, and all else, 
until his mind at last holds still to one selected view. This Is not 
the art of making a focus. 

In order to turn the theme just mentioned into a power- 
ful flight of fancy under the skill of mental vision, it would first be 
necessary to possess a large fund of magnetism, so that the tempera- 
ment of the genius would be established; then the direction of the 
mind upon a single subject, even with the commendable variations 
mentioned, should not be favored, for there is much more to be at- 
tained by making a focus. The ocean scene is very properly the 
central idea of this theme, but much else should be gathered around 
it and thrown upon it, like influences standing near ready to be 
called into service. The waves of the ocean do not originate in its 
own nature, but obey the power of the wind that plays on its surface. 
This wind is gentle, soft, insinuating, steady, rough, wild, powerful, 
or mighty, as the elements may detenu i no. and the waves change 
their character to suit the atmospheric condition. Then the clouds 
are always in harmony with wind and wave. The black ruinous 
mass accompanies the rolling vapor of the thunderstorm, before 
whose wide path a dead calm lies on air and wave, but under whose 
angry mountain the tearing wind upheaves the piling billows which 
are again assuaged by the torrential flood. Here are ideas that 
stand about to wait upon the ocean scene. 

But there are more to be considered, before all may 
be brought together upon the central theme. The colors of the 
ocean are due in part to the water, but very largely to the air, the 
clouds and the sky. There are reflections from rocks, shores, 
islands, ships and everything around as well as above the surface of 
the deep. The blue sky, clear and open, imparts that rich and fresh 
coloring that is most entrancing to the eye. The fleecy argosies, 
like sail-spread boats, are mirrored in calmer surfaces below. The 
snowy cliffs of heaven, the long veils of leaden gray, the lace-liko 
haze, the hurrying islands, these and more are influences that effect 
the ocean's hue, its character and its waves. Then the birds that 
wing their flight across the sky or skim the crests below, the craft 
that may here and there dot the horizon edge, the floating weeds or 
wreckage, and the limits that horn in the scene on every hand mu 
be given their affecting rank in the interest of the picture. But the 
stars at night must not be forgotten, nor the influence of the sun at 
high noon. Tlio rising orb at morn overspreads the horizon witli 



538 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

colors peculiar to its period, and these involve the water and the 
clouds in far reaching floods of light. The sunsets of art are as 
numerous as the Oriental alphabet. The moon in all its phases 
commands the central position in many an ocean scene, and cannot 
he accidentally placed. 

Thus we may see the radii of the picture, and all the 
influences that bear upon its full garniture. Let each part be held 
in sway and made to strengthen the central theme; let these outer 
parts be multiplied and intensified as they are drawn toward the 
focus, and you have an idea of the importance of our principle. On 
the contrary, if the mind be wandering or indulging in its imagina- 
tions, there is no possibility of attaining the power of self -magnet- 
ism, which is the product of the temperament of which we have 
spoken and mental vision; and, until self -magnetism be acquired, 
there can be no hope of reaching the realm of exalted sub-conscious- 
ness. These are distinct propositions. They are laws of exact 
value, and must be strictly observed. Looking over the steps that 
lead to this result, we see that each one is possible in every earnest 
life, and the summary should not contain a single element of failure. 

•*v ITf'gTyf— f?rf T77y rgrT ■ r*rv v Sr*- £ Sf*% '«.'« 

1 533 | 

Mental vision is a creative function. 

This is the 533d Ealston Principle. The plan stated herein 
was reported to us from a well-known poet, through the kindness of 
an intermediate. What is true of poetry in this regard is true of 
oratory, art, invention and all other nses of the higher faculties E 
the mind. Before making the experiment, recall the music of some 
river you have heard flowing: the rhythm, the murmur, the ripple, 
the dash, will all live again. Then repeat aloud the following lines: 

" Oh, a wonderful stream is the river time. 
<As it runs through the realm of tears. 
With a faultless rhythm and musical rhyme, 
(.And a boundless sweep and a surge sublime. 
(As it binds with the Ocean of Years." 

Close the eyes, and repeat the first line silently. Call 
up before your mind a stream, a river, a long river, just like some 



REALM OF 'I III. ESTATE OF EXALTATION 539 

river you have seen or hean I about. Have you ever been upon the 
banks of a river, or on its bosom? Recall the same stream. Was it 
in the summer? At twilight, or in the morning? Who was with 
you? Was the occasion pleasant? Where did fchia river have its 
source? Where do all rivers originate? Can you see the mountains 
or hills, the upland scenery where a small stream babbles among the 
rocks, and can you follow it down through the country it must pass 
through ere it reaches you? It skirts little towns and villages, di- 
vides farms, runs mills, and bears the one sad story of life at every 
turn it makes. 

Time is compared to a river. The mental vision carries 
us far hack beyond the records, even of geological data, and we see 
the on-flowing stream, until it has reached us. The second line of 
the verse is capable of great enlargement. The pupil must now 
begin to create. Earthly life is a vale of tears. The river time did 
not originate in this life. It was flowing on long before, and on its 
course passes through the vale of tears. Thought flashes in an in- 
stant over a thousand scenes of life. A dying man may recall in a 
few seconds the wickedness of a life time. So we can now think of 
eveiy great sorrow we have witnessed. One scene will, perhaps, 
stand out above all others. The habit of mental vision, once 
formed, will always enable us to see everything in the boldest relief; 
and the strongest pictures occupy but the fractional part of a 
second. 

Let the pupil fill out the mind pictures for the rest of 
of the verse. All the five senses come in for a share of the creative 
ability of the brain; as, for instance, the perception of sound may be 
made very acute in recalling beautiful songs, or the voices of loved 
ones, long since counted among the memories of the past: we can 
taste the delicacy; we can feel the blow, the pain, the wound, the 
touch, the kiss, once more; we can inhale the fragrance of the rose; 
or the balmy air of some spring day just freshening into blossoming 
May or the evening odors wafted to us by some gentle summer 
zephyr, as we walked in hope when love breathed its first sign into 
confessing words; all these and thousands more of experiences of the 
past can be summoned into the active present, by the aid of mental 
vision. 

The acquirement of the art is rather slow, but when the 
wedge is once entered the hardest part of the battle is oyer. You 
will soon find your mind ma king creations of its own. Whether 



540 UNIVERSAL 2IAGNETISM 

these axe used for poetry, for composition, for orator}", for the 
dramatic profession, for painting, for drawing, for sculpture, for in- 
vention, or for any of the sublimer ambitions of life, is not material. 
The process interests us because it is a step toward the great exalta- 
tion which the highest mind alone can reach; highest, not in the 
sense of book lore, but in that better quality of forceful energy. 

I 534 | 

Mental vision, by practice, may be made a natural 
attribute of the brain. 

This is the 534th Ealston Principle. The extent of the power 
acquired seems to be without limit, and many very emphatic cases 
have come to our notice from the reports of our pupils, or those who 
have carefully studied and pursued these lessons. So important is 
the success in many an instance that it has been the cause of com- 
pletely revolutionizing the life of the student. The examples here- 
with given are the same that we have used for fifteen years or longer, 
and they will be recognized by those who have formerly employed 
them. 

" How the winters are drifting, like flakes of snow, 
tAnd the summer like buds between; 
tJlud the year in the sheaf— so they come and they go, 
On the rivefs breast, with its ebb and flow 
*As it glides in the shadow and sheen" 

The emphatic ideas generally should receive the men- \ 
tal vision. "Winter." Close the eyes and recall all the past winters 
of your life. Which one was the pleasantest? Which the saddest? 
What occurred in each? Where were you at the time? Do you 
now see the people who were with you then? the house? the town or 
country site? Do the}'' come back as vividly as they were once real? 
"Snow." Enlarge this. See before you some great drifts; see the 
long expanse of fields, all white. "Summers." Can you with the 
mind's eye recall the verdure everywhere, the blossoms opening into 
flowers, the out-door life, the old times, and one, perhaps, happier or 
sadder than any other.. In a flash all these should be present. 
"Sheaf." The harvest; the fall of fruit, flower and grain. Enlarge 
this, and put the results on paper, then call them up as mental 



REALM OF Tin: />'/ \ii. or EXALTATION 541 

pictures. "( rlides." Sou can see very easily the gliding mov< 
of a river; the overhanging banks and cliffs, and trees that mirror 
their shapes on the glassy surface; here you glide into the shadow, 
and out again into the Bunlight. Do yon see this or any part of it? 
Do not practice one exercise too Long. 

" With grave aspect be rose, ami in bis rising seemed 

<A pillar of state: deep on bis brow engraven 
Deliberation sat, and public care; 

tAnd princely counsel in his face yet shone 
{Majestic, though in ruin. Sage be stood, 

With vAtlantean shoulders, jit to bear 
The weight of mightiest monarchies ; his look 

Drew audience and attention still as night ; 
Or sum i tier's noontide air" 

"Friends, Romans, countrymen.*' Close the eyes. AYliat do you 
see? Where are you? Marc Antony is addressing the Roman popu- 
lace, upon the conclusion of Brutus* -perch. The impression made 
"by his predecessor is unfavorable to Antony, and the latter must 
overcome it. There are the faces of enemies hedged about the 
scene, their distrust of the speaker and their hatred of the dead 
Cassar being everywhere disclosed. What are these faces? Of what 
caste, age, and order of intelligence are the people? What are their 
costumes as to material, style, shape, richness or poverty, clcanlim 
or dirt, and how are they worn, handled and managed by the popu- 
lace? "I thrice presented him with a kingly crown, which he did 
thrice refuse." 

Imagine yourself standing before the Roman popu- 
lace. Have the mob well pictured in your mind, their various 
heights, sizes, facial expressions, and attitudes; Bee all these details 
in the air before you and around yon: then shut the eyes, keeping 
the mob still imprinted upon the mind and call up a BOene within a 
scene, — a vision within a vision. — the event of a previous day when. 
the crown was offered to Caesar and he refused it. Picture the occa- 
sion as well as you can, allowing the imagination to take such flights, 
as it will in supplying the details. Do no1 have tin- "presentation 

QO" too empty. See the building, or place, it- Miiroiindine>, its 
furniture. Its people; behold ( Jaesar's face: call before you the crow 
what it looked like, and BO continue through the entire proa 
mental vision. 



542 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

Having given examples for this practice, and having 

partially supplied the visionary scenes for the pupil, we now ask the 
pupil to create his own scenes, supplying all the details himself. 
The examples below are divided into four classes : — 

1. Things. 

2. Qualities. 

3. Nature. 

4. Supernatural. 

Each pupil should write out, after each attempt at 
mental vision, what he saw; and keep adding any new details with 
each attempt until he has filled the scene. Do not sit down and 
compose, but shut the eyes and imagine, then write the sights seen. 
It may require months to even "start" the process of mental vision; 
but when once started, it grows very rapidly. Each one of the fol- 
lowing examples should be practiced upon for a long time, and when 
you think you have a perfect scene, send it to us for examination. 
Persons with genius will possess this gift at the start. Practice 
slowly, deliberately, wait for the vision to come, and focus all sur- 
rounding details upon the main theme. 

■Si C-3C *.t 

Intense mental vision develops great clearness of 
perception. 

This is the 535th Ralston Principle. While the law stated may 
seem to depend upon a higher degree of the same power already set 
forth, it really opens up a new phase of the whole matter. The 
statements we are about to make are founded upon reports made to 
us by our students, and are so strong as to possess the flavor of exag- 
geration. One of our advisers, a gentleman who looks only to the 
business side of this great study, counselled us as follows: "What 
you have written is true; you knew it to be true; I do, also, in cases 
sufficient in number and authenticity to convince any reasonable 
person; and there are proofs in abundance to sustain the claims 
made in these reports; but what of the general public? In order to 
convince them you must produce your proofs, and these would in- 
volve you in a breach of trust toward the men and women who have 
sent you the reports in good faith under the promise that their 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF EXALT AT 10 543 

names should never be divulged. On the whole, it is the part of 
wisdom (o lay down the principle and expunge the facta wrhi< ; 
i -m bodied in the accounts of the students who hai I that prin- 

ciple. My only reason for giving this advice is to save your paj 

from being doubted by those of the public who are ignorant of the 
workings of the principle." We have presented one side of the ca 
the summary of which is to the effect that the time is not yet ripe 
for the world, to accept the truth in this matter. 

The other side of the case is very brief and simple. 
The statements made are true. If they are to be doubted by the 
public, it must be a very limited portion of the public, for no person 
who does not possess this book in his own name has a right to know 
what it contains, and every person who does so possess the book may 
easily verify the assertions by proving them in his own life. The 
great number who have proved, the principle in the past have fur- 
nished us with reports sufficient in bulk to make a large book. The 
import of one and. all is this: intense mental vision develops great 
clearness of perception. This is clairvoyance, it may be claimed; if 
so. it is easily disposed of, but it is certainly a higher grade of the 
power than is derivable from hypnotic conditions, and is free from 
the baneful influences of that practice. 

Some of the more important accounts may be drawn 
from in this connection. The abundance of minor experiem 
cannot be ignored; but it is gratifying to know that substantial re- 
wards have come to those who have worked to secure great restil 
In one case, now an old one to us, a former student of this system, 
who. has risen high in his profession of artist, has, through the aid 
of mental vision been able to conceive the true costumes and faces of 
the ancients; he discovered this fact after painting several important 
pictures solely from imagination, and then receiving proofs of their 
correctness, which he had not at hand ;it the time the work v 
done. His friends, not being satisfied with his claims, tested him by 
giving partial descriptions of scenes whieh he reproduced with such 
perfection as to excite charges of collusion. 

Another pupil, a lady of twenty, whose ancestors came 
from another country, and whose paternal grandmother was buried 
in a grave-yard near a German farm, had occasion Tor the first time 
in her life to visit the place. She had never ever been in the coun- 
try. Arriving ;ii the grave-yard she found her grandmother's grave 
at once, and exclaimed: "The white fence is down." This fen 



544 UN ITERS AL MAGNETISM 

had been there at the time of the funeral thirty years before, and 
had lasted but eleven years. To some of the old residents this lady 
described her grandmother's home, with the garden, farm, orchard 
and vineyard as they used to be, although great changes had been 
made since her death, of which the granddaughter could have had 
no knowledge. More of these- incidents will be presented in other 
forms in these pages. New principles are associated with the pres- 
ent law. Its importance is so great as to demand the best attention. 
The conditions of clairvoyance are absent, while the results are bet- 
ter obtained. 

m fit 

Sincerity of belief is necessarily the basis of all self- 
magnetism. 

This is the 536th Ralston Principle. While this law seems 
somewhat like another, it is founded upon an opposite purpose and 
runs on under opposite conditions. When one seeks to control an 
hypnotic subject, it is necessary to convince the latter of the ability 
to do so. He looks into the eyes of the operator and there reads the 
fact. While a thorough belief is a help to the operator in acquiring 
the force of will needed in the effort, the real value of it is in its 
effect upon the subject. 

The contrary is true in the case of self -magnetism. 
In the first place the sincerity of belief serves to marsiiaii all tne en- 
ergies and vitalities into one column of strength and determined 
purpose. This increases the magnetism; and, being founded on 
nmgnetism, doubles on itself and grows continually, making the 
combination the most powerful thing in all human life. But there 
is another reason why it is important; it selects a goal and goes 
toward it with irresistible purpose; thus not only serving to increa-e 
the magnetism but to make its action the greater. It is like a stor- 
age battery of electricity in which an already large fund has been 
greatly increased, and to which machinery has been connected capa- 
ble of executing more effective work. Some exceedingly important 
victories in this art have been achieved by this use of the personal 
powers. 

Here magnetism almost reaches its height. There 
would seem to be no loftier planes, but one yet remains to be con- 



REALM Or THE ESTATE OF EXALTATION 545 

sidered at the end of this series of ; the last and bhegrand- 

. Next i" that is the power that comee from the union of the 

energy, after Its acquisition, with the thorough sincerity of belief in 

one's ability to use it al will. Such sincerity may be cultivated, and 

falls back upon all the principles started since the second estate i 
this book, as a basis for its d< pment. Jt makes no diffi i 

how it is acquired; but it must be associated of necessity with the 
practice, the regime and the temperament of magnetism. The most 
helpful of the specific aids to its growth, are the laws that relate to 
the will and those that relate to mental vision. The former will in- 
variably build magnetism; the latter gives it clearness of brain and 
accuracy of judgment. These, then, are of leading value. 

§ (5 

§ 537 "3 

The ganglia are separate cells of energy capable of 
union at will. 

This is the 537th Ealston Principle. We have, in the first vol- 
ume of this stud}', referred to the fact that there are ganglia every- 
where connected with the nervous system, as a part of it; their pur- 
pose being to collect and to hold the electricity or life-principle 
ready for use. Each ganglion is a nerve cell of gra}^ matter, the 
most powerful substance of the entire body. At each side or end 
there is a fibril, which is composed of protoplasm and terminal 
in finer branches. 

These ganglia hold the nerve life of the being, and are 
found throughout the system, but principally in the brain, when 
mass is considered. They seem to be numberless. The great fact 
connected with them is their separate existence, each being discon- 
nected from the other. According to the histological scheme of 
Gerlach, the mass of the substance of the brain is a mesh-work -of 
cells and fibrils; and science asked the question. How is it then 
possible that various sets of cells are shut off from one another, then 
connected in part with others, and so arranged in countless millions 
of probable combinations? Attempts of every kind were made to 
meet this problem, and it was not till 1889 that the solution w 
found. A short time before this the Italian histologist, Dr. Camille 
G-olgi, had discovered a method of impregnating hardened brain 



546 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

tissues with, a solution of nitrate of silver, with the result of stamina 
Tthe nerve cells and their processes better than was possible by the 
/method of Gerlach, or by any of the methods that others had intro- 
' duced. Now for the first time it became possible to trace the cellu- 
lar prolongations definitely, for the finer fibrils had not been ren- 
dered visible by any previous method of treatment. Golgi himself 
proved that the set of fibrils known as protoplasmic prolongations 
.terminate by free extremities, and have no direct connection with 
.any cell save the one from which they spring. He showed also that 
the axis cylinders give off multitudes of lateral branches not 
.hitherto suspected. 

The discovery did not go far enough, however. It 
[remained for another scientist, Dr. S. Eamon y Cajal, to follow up 
"the investigation by means of an improved application of Golgi's 
method of staining, and to demonstrate that the axis cylinders, to- 
gether with all their collateral branches, though sometimes extend- 
ing to a great distance, yet finally terminate, like the other cell pro- 
longations, in fibrils having free extremities. In a word, it was 
shown that each central nerve cell, with its fibrillar offshoots, is sep- 
arate. Instead of being in physical connection with a multitude of 
other nerve cells, it has no direct physical connection with any other 
nerve cell whatever. 

This was of more than ordinary importance, and when 
Dr. Cajal announced his discovery, in 1889, his revolutionary 
claims amazed the mass of histologists. There were some few of 
them, however, who were not quite prepared for the revelation; in 
particular His, who had half suspected the independence of the 
cells, because they seemed to develop from dissociated centres; and 
Forel, who based a similar suspicion on the fact that he had never 
"been able actually to trace a fibre from one cell to another. These 
observers then came readily to repeat Cajal's experiments. So also 
did the veteran histologist Kolliker, and soon afterward all the lead- 
ers everywhere. The result was a practically unanimous confirma- 
tion of the claims, and within a few months after his announcements 
the old theory of union of nerve cells into an endless meshwork was 
completely discarded, and the theory of isolated nerve elements— 
the theory of neurons, as it came to be called — was fully established 
in its place. 

The discovery served to make clear what was pre- 
viously unexpla amble. In modified view, the nerve cell retains its 



REALM OF THE ITE OF EXALTATION 547 

old position as the storehouse of nervous energy. Each of the Liu 
extending from the eel] is he-Id, as before, to be a transmitter of im- 
pulses, but a transmitter thai acts when controlled. Tin.* fibril 
operates by contact, and not by continuity. Under proper stimula- 
t ion the ends of the fibrils roach out, conic in contact with other end 
fibrils of other cells, and conduct their destined impulse. Again 
they retract, and communication ceases for the time between tin 
particular cells. Meantime, by a different arrangement of the vari- 
ous conductors, different sets of cells are placed in communication, 
different associations of nervous impulses induced, different trains 
of thought engendered. Each fibril when retracted becomes a non- 
conductor, but when extended and in contact with another fibril, or 
with the body of another cell, it conducts its message as readily as a 
continuous filament could do — precisely as in the case of an electric 
wire. 

The method of operation is fully sustained by every 
kind of experiment; and answers the question as to how ideas arc 
isolated, and also, as Dr. Cajal points out, throws new light on many 
other mental processes. One can imagine, for example, by keeping 
in mind the flexible nerve prolongations, how new trains of thought 
may be engendered through novel associations of cells; how facility 
of thought or of action in certain directions is acquired through tin 
habitual making of certain nerve-cell connections; how certain bits 
of knowledge may escape our memory, and refuse to be found for a 
time, because of a temporary incapacity of the nerve cells to make 
the proper connections; and so on indefinitely. 

There is another importance attached to the discovery. 
If these ganglia are scattered throughout the body, as they in fact 
are, it is at once seen how the nerve-force or magnetic-vitality may 
be collected and preserved, to be used at will, or to be wasted when 
the impulses are not controlled. The whole secret seems to be 
locked up in this power of the cells to separate or to unite as t! 
may be controlled. All the power, the life, the energy of the body 
can be traced to these ganglia. The mysteries of thought, and even 
■the inner clearness of the sub-conscious faculty are held in tic 
little disconnected cells. An ordinary idea makes use of but few. 
while the vast numbers lie idle. A change of thought causes a few 
others to unite, while the hordes are yet unemployed. Magnetism 
calls more than a few into union; it needs more to propel its 
thouffht. Self-magnetism uses -till more, for the power now a 



548 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

mighty; and the greater the nervous energy or magnetism becomes, 
the more of these cells are called into service. This is necessarily 
true. It is an axiom almost. What if the entire mass, or a majority 
at least should at one impulse be made to serve the will? The 
greater includes the less. Nothing would be lost and much gained. 



1 538 | 



Pacts are inspired by the use of the sub-conscious 
faculty. 

This is the 538th Ealston Principle. It must not be misunder- 
stood. The facts that come to a gifted speaker are generally those 
of a stored memory; things supposed to have been long ago forgot- 
ten, but now called forth in their exactness of truth. This rule has 
been tested in many ways. The cause of the exercise of such power 
may probably be found in the principle previously stated. The 
little ganglia or nerve-cells that abound in countless numbers 
through the brain as well as elsewhere, produce thought by their 
methods of uniting and combining with each other. It would nat- 
urally follow that the more of them that are employed in every 
thought impulse the more powerful the impulse must become. 

This is not all. There are facts surrounding all minds. 
The world is full of facts. Thev abound in the universe. Their in- 
fluences are as numerous as the sands of the sea. Few persons are 
able to appreciate the force of this law, until they come to the start- 
ling keenness of mind that the genuine clairvoyant exhibits. Pro- 
fessors of the leading universities of England and America join 
voices in the exclamatory questions. "What does this mean? 
How did this person obtain the information? Traveling over land 
and sea, in and out of buildings, in and out of closets, of minds, of 
books., papers, letters, this power of true clairvoyance goes and 
comes, extracting facts and revealing them to the amazement of all, 
without committing a single error. 

Before the volume closes we shall show that what is 
possible to the hypnotized or cataleptic subject, is equally and even 
better possible to the self-magnetized individual. We see no way 
of attacking the law. It is everywhere acknowledged that clairvoy- 
ance can touch facts, no matter where they are, no matter how re- 



R$ALM OF THE ESTATE OF EXALTATION 549 

mote in time or place, no matter how intricate or how difficult of ab- 
straction; this nrasl be accepted as the impregnable truth, for it is 
always maintained by tests and always believed. Then it is equally 
certain that there are as many facts in the world surrounding the 
normal life, as there are surround i 1 1 - tin- clairvoyant. 

Better than all is the fact that self-magnetism, employ- 
ing* the exalted power of sub-consciousness, is able to touch more in- 
formation, to see it more clearly and to draw it fortli into the world 
of uses in greater strength, than all the combined powers of clair- 
vo}'ance. Given a due amount of magnetism, as well as a magnetic 
temperament with strong mental vision, and facts can be unfolded 
in surprising clearness. This should be so, and is so. We remem- 
ber some years ago supplying a piece of missing information that 
was not discoverable by any method of research or study. The 
question was then raised as to the correctness of the information, as 
there was no way at the time of ascertaining. After a lapse of time, 
the accuracy was confirmed so that all doubt was removed; then 
came the inquiry as to how we got possession of the facts when they 
were not obtainable at the time. 

This kind of proof has been often secured not only by 
us but by our pupils. It is a ver3 r common occurrence with some. 
Says a teacher in one of the leading schools of the North, "I come to 
possess facts 1 , the truth of which I cannot prove for a long time after 
securing them. I hesitate to make open use of them, as I am in 
doubt as to their honesty. Sooner or later I leam of their truth. 
This is the strangest of strange things." Poets are necessarily 
gifted with mental vision, and they often see existing facts in the 
universe that no man has yet called forth. Tennyson was peculi- 
arly gifted with this power. Shakespeare went everywhere with his 
sub-conscious mind; and there is no other way of accounting for his 
remarkable genius. He died several years before the circulation of 
the blood was discovered, yet described it in his writings. Sweden- 
borgen wrote scientific matter, deep, broad and voluminous; scien- 
tists of his day were compelled reluctantly to admit the accuracy of 
all his statements while knowing that he had no means of access to 
the information he divulged. l 

Were it not for the truth of the principle, -that facts are 
inspired by the use of the sub-conscious faculty, there would never 
be a discovery in science, never an invention, never a step in the 
progress of civilization. Feeling For facts, reaching out after them, 



550 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

studying hard to unearth them, will not bring them to light. They 
come, when they come at all, with startling suddenness, like a bolt 
out of a clear sky, like a shaft of light into the shadows of the grop- 
ing brain. The Wizard Edison has a completely endowed sub-con- 
scious mind, whose theme is electricity, and the facts which his 
mind has drawn out of the vastly deep into his possession are revo- 
lutionizing the nations of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. 

1 539 1 

Intuition is a sub-conscious knowledge of facts. 

This is the 539th Ealston Principle. This is a peculiar com- 
monplace power that is possessed by nearly all persons at times, 
though not clearly enough to give them any remarkable prestige. 
It shows that the mind occasionally touches all its realms, even 
though it does not make a prolonged stay in the better of them, un- 
less invited by culture. Popularly described, intuition is the feel- 
ing that a thing is true, without any evidence of the fact obtained 
from the usual sources. Once let a person understand the nature 
of this power, and ignorance will construe every impression into 
such knowledge. 

Most presentiments and impressions are not intuition. 
If they are founded upon the least fact as an instigation, they are 
then merely deductions, conclusions or estimates, and are right or 
wrong as the mind may bo of good or bad quality in its judgment, 
or the guess may hit or miss. When the habit of inference has 
grown on a person it becomes morbid in proportion as the brain is 
shallow. This is seen in such moods as those of jealousy, envy and 
revenge; in which all reason is dethroned and nothing of value is 
substituted. This depletes the mind by soon exhausting its vital- 
ity at any given place. It is well known that to weary any one 
point of the brain is equal to destroying its whole action for the 
time being. Size has very little to do with the quantity of vitality 
involved. In the center of the medulla oblongata is a little dot, too 
small to seem of any use; yet if it be touched with the point of a 
needle the heart will stop beating and death ensue in the instant. 
So the exhaustion of a Single line of thought in the brain, will lead 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF EXALTATION 551 

to the temporary collapse of the whole organ. This is supposed te> 
be a step in the art of hypnotizing a person. The evil moods of 
which we have spoken are capable of holding Hie thought a loa 
time, with the consequences mentioned. 

Intuition is quite the opposite of this process. It com 
without preparatory thinking, and generally when the mind is most 
receptive by being most inactive. Jt is one of the most valuable 
aids to a human being, and, in lesser life is really necessary to save 
the too vulnerable animals from being overwhelmed and extermi- 
nated. Many a man has owed his life's preservation to the callings- 
and warnings of this little power. Sometimes it speak- with the 
distinctness of certaint}', and always brightly; never on the dark 
side; never terrorizing by alarms and appalling apparitions. That 
the habit may be cultivated is well known, and by the same process- 
that is used in stimulating the visions of dreams. It seems to keep* 
pace with the development of exalted magnetism. 



m 



540 



^ fix 



Sub-conscious visions in dreams are stimulated by 

intensifying them. 

This is the 540th Ealston Principle. A dream is a waking pro- 
cess. It occurs under excitement due to external causes that appeal} 
to the senses, or to internal causes that are aroused by a current of 
magnetism passing along a series of ganglionic cells and stimulating; 
them to action. Eefereuce has been made to the histology of these 
cells, and their methods of disconnecting for rest, and uniting to- 
produce given ideas; which may be found a few pages back. The- 
inward flow of an inciting current is sufficient to produce the dream; 
first always leading up to wakefulness, although many persons re- 
lapse again into profound slumber. It is in the moment of getting: 
awake that the dream occurs. 

When the nervous system is in the realm of confu- 
sion, the dream is always hypnotic, and may or may not be startling 
or terrifying. When the nervous system is in the realm of peace,, 
the dream never fails to be refreshing, happy, inspiring and exalted. 
Pew and rare are the cases where such dreams occur unless the facul- 
ties of life have been brought into their full magnetic er. 



552 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

"Some of the hypnotic dreams are true because they possess the clair- 
voyant faculty found in the lower stratum of sub-consciousness. 
■On the other hand many of the exalted dreams are incapable of be- 
ing verified, as they reach realms that are superhuman; but not one 
has ever been found untrue, and some have shown the pathway of 
success with unerring accuracy. 

The process is simple and the explanation is easily 
understood. There are facts all about us and bevond us. This 
proposition cannot be disputed. Of these facts some are close at 
hand and probable; others are greater than human life. This earth 
with its opportunities, is not all there is of the universe. Man is 
not master of creation. There is something to be known that he 
has not yet found out. Facts are things. They are everywhere. A 
faculty that is clear in its perception is able to see what cannot be 
viewed by the use of the ordinary human senses. Mankind is some- 
thing of earth, more of the human, and something of the super- 
human. Occultism, or any other ism, is not needed to construe the 
process whereby the mind within is able to catch facts not obtain- 
able by the ordinary faculties. 

The visions of dreams are intensified by repeating 
their details in the mind, creating more surroundings, producing 
the focus through the aid of mental vision and throwing all the en- 
ergy of magnetism upon them. The brain-cells are given a double 
use; each takes its share in the production of conscious and sub-con- 
scious ideas; or else the same cells in one combination make the or- 
dinary mind, and in other combinations, the extraordinary. Which*- 
ever may be true is not material. The fact we seek to impress is 
that the same idea is given a greater impulse and vitality by being 
supported on a larger number of brain cells. This is what may be 
accomplished by the process just stated. It is wrong to allow the 
incidents of an exalted dream to become lost. Lazy habits drive 
away this blessed influence. Activity, quick and alert to every de- 
tail, secures the valuable theme and preserves it for future refer- 
ence. The more frequently it is repeated, the more intense be- 
comes the power of that faculty which first produced it. Here is 
the secret of the growth of sub-conscious visions in dreams. 




REALM OF THE ESTATE OF EXALTATION 553 

I 541 

Inspirations are intensified by recording them. 
This is the 541st Ralston Principle. The record must be made 

at the time of the inspiration. We do not use this w<»nl intending 
to take it into that higher realm of influence where divinity has ex- 
clusive sovereignty. There is every grade and kind of inspiration. 
The word by common consent, is made to apply to whatever action 
of the mind the user chooses to describe. The scale of power rims 
a gamut from the least energy to the grea id there is every op- 

portunity for taking advantage of any part of it one chooses. In- 
spirations, whether in dreams or in waking hours, are evidences of 
power of the highest order. 

One individual progresses, another falls back into the 
rear of the masses; because one takes advantage of the opportunities 
of advancement, while the other gives them no heed. For instance, 
it is known that many an inspiration has knocked at the door of life 
and been shut out. A man falls asleep and dreams; he awakes, re- 
members the dream and goes to sleep again. In the morning he 
does not seek to recall the details; at noon they are vague; at night 
again he has no idea of what his dream c< ed of, — it is lost. 

Another man dreams, he awakes, remembers it, falls asleep and in 
the morning on arising he writes down the details as he dreamed 
them. At night again he looks at the details: he lies down to sleep, 
thinking of the dream of the night before. That dream came to 
him in sleep; thinking of its details excites the sleeping functions of 
the brain, and brings on sleep. This is a parallel case only. The 
brain standing as the soul's interpreter, has a variety of functions. 
Away, in some remote corner of its life, is the crevice that lets in 
the light from another world. A gleam trembles on the edge, and 
we shut it out; it appears less distinctly, and is gone. Yet, after 
years of absence, it is time to shine again. If we had not shut it 
out, or if, when it comes again, we encourage it the presence grow.-. 

Every life has its awakening, its thrill, its yearning, its 
song of hope, its dawn of genius. They come when we are least 
prepared to receive them, always unexpectedly; and they linger with 
us but a brief time. Like the brilliant flights of poesy they are in- 
spired. Genius long ago learned how to save the fruit of these great 



554 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

moments — for they are the greatest moments of life — hy instantly 
recording the thought which the creative function of the brain had 
inspired. Few persons care to put themselves to the trouble of find- 
ing paper and pencil and writing down an idea, at inconvenient 
times. They think it will last until some more opportune moment; 
but that department of the brain which opened to give vent to the 
effusion, closes tightly, and few persons can recall, even an hour 
later, any line of the beautiful jewel. It goes away offended, and 
when it so departs it leaves forever. 

Many a grand idea has come to a person in a dream 
Genius would arise at the first waking moment and record the facts. 
Mediocrity would wait until after breakfast in the morning and 
often hunt in vain around the alcoves of the brain for the idea. 
Many an orator, or a candidate for the title, while walking along the 
street alone or in company, finds an idea of great value running in 
his mind. In ten minutes it will be gone. It can never be recalled 
in just the shape in which it came to him. The great poets and 
many of the greatest orators have seized this opportunity to save 
this gem of thought. The principle involved is this: The brain was 
exercising its creative function at the time; and this function may 
be stimulated by preserving the thought, and afterward referring 
to it. 

The reason why a subsequent reference to the 
thought will stimulate this valuable condition of the brain, is be- 
cause the thinking powers are concentrated upon that part of the 
brain which produces or creates these thoughts. On the same prin- 
ciple, if any word, feeling or impulse of an inspired nature, should 
occur, it must be fixed at once; and any after reference to it is called 
recurrence, and excites it very much in the same way as the fui - 
tions of the brain are excited. Added to this habit must be a mag- 
netic temperament and the full development of mental vision. Ex- 
periments have been made in these uses for many years. The prin- 
ciple is everywhere proved not only true bur easily possible to one 
who sets the goal as it is demanded under the laws in the estate of 
the will. Aim high and reach the mark. Xo training in which sel f 
is master aaid pupil can exceed this in rich fruitage. 



REALM OF Tin: ESTATE OP EXALTATION 555 

| 542 1 

Inspirations will carry the ready mind to unlimited 
heights. 

This is the 542d Ralston Principle. These visitations arc the 
natural outgrowth of the menial powers heretofore described. All 
persons have at times hoped to catch a glimpse of the borderland of 
the hereafter. What this glimpse is cannol be told to one who has 
never known its character. To a deaf man you cannot explain the 
exquisite deliciousness of sweet music; to the blind there is no 
avenue of joy in flowers. Yet sometimes in soul-dreams the wak- 
ing heart pulsates to the harmony of life, and the inner sense is 
startled, though not awakened; and in its filmy foresight catches 
the spirit of the better man. 

Inspiration is an attribute of sub-consciousness ; it is 
to soul-life what color is to light, or contour to grace, or weight to 
gold; its relationship is present, but hard to appreciate, if not expe- 
rienced. Yet, although the relationship is difficult to define, the 
real nature of inspiration in and of itself is easily understood. It 
knocks at the heart of every human being some time during life. 
Great occasions fire the heart, and lo! the world is made richer by 
new-born patriotism, love of country, true eloquence, grandeur of 
thought, of word and of deed. In the quiet thrill of still momeri 
when the man that lives within the man seeks recognition, there 
comes the poet's lofty genius, the artist's dream of beauty, the 
author's inspired utterance. 

These are the soul's better life, and they lift the curtain 
that veils eternity; not high enough to show the realm beyond, but 
sufficiently to reveal the trailing lighi that burns along the horizon's 
edge. In these supreme moments of life there are degrees of in- 
tensity; and inspiration is likewise graded, depending upon the 
person, and the circumstances. All greatness is inspired; all genius 
is inspired; yet they consist originally of tendencies. These ten- 
dencies may be neglected or encouraged: and, from an unremitting 
observation of over twenty years, we are convinced that they may be 
created in every human being. In other words the opportunity of 
being great is open to all. 

Inspiration conies like a bird, and is wary. It must be 
coaxed and encouraged. Inactivity repels it. Tie- habit of 'n- 



556 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

stant application is the first essential. Idle moments, idle conver- 
sation destroy it. The successful men and women all are full of 
busy activities; have on hand as much, and almost more than can be 
attended to. 

Inspired thoughts and deeds occur every day, among 
the lowly as well as among the powerful. In every age they have 
had their office, their usefulness and their fate. Inspiration makes 
a man better than his fellow beings. Born for a destiny, cleaving to 
one main purpose through life, he becomes great. Opening the 
listening ear of the soul till it drinks in the purpose of divine life, 
man becomes a saint. Writing from the tablets of revealed 
knowledge, he becomes an agent of the Deity. Eising higher yet, 
and above the plane of the human, he is Christ. Every being in 
every age, and of every race and condition, who speaks one word for 
the good of his fellow man, who utters one sublime truth, who acts 
one noble deed, is to that extent inspired; and it matters not how a 
doctrine, or a religion came about, whether by accident or design, 
whether by the invention of man or the will of the Creator, by the 
artifice of priests or the command of God; it stands for what it 
and in so far as it draws humanity Heavenward it is glorious and 
inspired. 

^ 543 1 

Epigrams, felicitations, and all rare thoughts are 
gifts of exaltation. 

This is the 543d Ralston Principle. The meaning of the law 
stated is well understood by every person who has had occasion to fit 
himself for the highest usefulness in this life Here is a man en- 
gaged in conversation; he suddenly stops, takes out a paper and 
writes. If one dare to ask him what it is that he has written, he 
may learn the fact that an idea of value, an apt phrase, a peculiarly 
impressive thought, or some happy fancy has come to his mind, and 
he wishes to secure it at the earliest possible moment. 

But why is he not willing to wait till some more oppor- 
tune time? For two reasons; first, he knows that even the most re- 
tentive memory will fail to recall it a few moments later: second, 
the catching of the inspiration, for such it is, and the future refer- 



REALM OF TEE ESTATE OF EXALTATION 557 

ence to it, will stimulate the very faculty that produced it, and lead 
to greater growth hereafter This is why Tennyson would arise 
from a party, excuse himself, and re-appear a few minutes later; this 
is why Longfellow, Tennyson, Bryant and nearly all great poets 
have got up out of heel at night, written down certain lines, and gone 
hack to bed. Pope saved his ideas by the use of his cuffs, a collar, or 
a scrap of paper; anything he could get at to write upon, if there was 
no sheet of paper at hand. The habit is one of common occurrence 
among geniuses in every department of life. The most successful 
of American playwrights confesses to having "saved" his sudden 
ideas for years in advance of each play, by instantly noting down 
the exact phraseology of each thought. "It was not the idea in the 
words, but the precise arrangement of the words that I found valu- 
able." This is the secret. Looking at the writings of Shakespeare, 
you will find ijiat all his ideas may be reproduced in different 
phraseology, but that their charm and power are lost. Nowhere in 
all his works is it possible to substitute one w T ord for another and 
yet preserve the effect. Each word seems to fit in its place like the 
stones in Solomon's temple. The speed with which he must have 
written precludes the use of deliberation. His inspiration walked 
with him. 

Epigrams are the best products of the mind. They 
are not met with every day. Speakers, knowing their value, at- 
tempt to create them out of the reasoning faculties, but they do not 
come in that way. Their advent is spontaneous. The machine- 
made epigram is artificial, it seeks to shock the mind by an absurd 
contradiction of ideas, like the phrase, "His youth increases with his 
age," or "I believe it because it is impossible." In one case the 
statement is not true, even if it intends to say that exuberance grows 
as the years advance. In the other case, the phrase is silly, yet has 
been passed around as an effective remark. Some of the contradic- 
tory epigrams are good, although they are never inspirations. We 
state a few by way of illustration, so that the mind may not be led 
into considering their culture as valuable. "He was so dishonest 
that he could deceive nobody," is true or may be true, if the person 
referred to is well known. "Failure is a stepping stone to succ< ss,' 
is a very good homily, for it tells us that the right kind of man will 
take lesson by failure and, avoiding its mistake, approach success. 
"The more a man has the more he want-,"' and "The more we know 
the more there is to know," serve their purpose as compressed state- 



558 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

ments of philosophy. They pass for the machine-made epigrams of 
the world. 

The true epigram is always inspired. It comes quite 
freely if the habit has been secured under the plan we have stated; 
that is, by writing them down at once, and afterward giving them 
many reviews in the mind. The function that creates them is thus 
stimulated and nourished. The word epigram comes from the 
Greek, and refers to a short, pithy, powerful, compressed statement. 
It was in use originally on tombs, and its purpose was to praise the 
dead by stating as much as possible in the fewest words. Such is 
the true meaning of the epigram of inspiration. The phrase, "True 
art is to conceal art," serves as an illustration of an apparent con- 
tradiction, while coming very close to inspiration. "Thirty cen- 
turies look down upon you," has often been cited as an effective epi- 
gram. It served to inspire the soldiers of Napoleon* who, amid the 
repose in Egypt, saw the works of three thousand years before gaz- 
ing upon their conflict. "Shakespeare's worst rises above Bacon's 
best like a palace above a hut," is an inspired epigram of tremend- 
ous force. 

Felicitations come out of the same faculty but in 
possibly lower degree; though all influences that count for joy and 
happiness are blessed. The habit of creating felicitous phraseology 
is one to be encouraged but never forced. A very low stratum of 
this art appears in the cheap talk of every day, and lias no real con- 
nection with the exalted faculty. Such writers as Thackery, Dick- 
ens, Irving, Holmes, Lowell and others of their peculiar brilliancy, 
have depended largely upon felicitations in order to hold their per- 
petual charm over their readers. "Fate tried to conceal him by 
naming him Smith," is a good illustration of this power. It 
the mind to thinking for a long while and always with increasing 
pleasure. Depew is the most effective of orators to-day, because 
of his mastery of felicitation. His ideas, as far as their pro rata 
value is concerned, sink deeper and live longer in the memo] 



"There's quiet in that Angel's giant 
There's rest in bis still countenance ! 
He mocks no grief with idle cheer, 

Nor wounds wit J: words the mourner's 



REALM OF Till: ESTATE OF EXALTATION 559 



% 544 ;fi K/ 



Written thoughts may be magnetic. 

This is the 544th Ralston Principle. A writer is in one of 
two moods, if his work has any merit at all. He is the tool of 
mere intellect, which is commendable; or he is more or less 
within the realm of an exalted estate. If his intellect alone com- 
mands his work, it has the merit of accuracy to a greater or less 
extent, and becomes a means of reference; but the writers who 
have proved themselves the most trustworthy have failed to do 
genuine service as teachers of mankind. This duty they cannot 
well neglect, for their food should be made as attractive and pre- 
sentable as possible. Dry thoughts, even if without error, are al- 
ways dry, except to minds dryer yet. A sponge without moisture 
might perceive some dampness in hay and seek to draw it out. 

Magnetic thoughts in writing are charged with the 
vitality of their authors. This, if at all in the realm of sub-con- 
sciousness, is first seen in the art of clearness. Flowery style is of 
no help in describing commonplace facts, but clearness, and pic- 
ture effects are decidedly valuable. These are magnetic. Then 
there is an undercurrent of energy, not apparent in the surface 
gleam of thought, that quietly takes hold of the reader and holds 
his interest in spite of himself, and, when his brain is weary from 
excess of use in hard problems, he comes back to the study or the 
reading with renewed brightness. The power of the simplest 
phraseology is seen in the following question from Shakespeare in 
which the king seeks sleep in vain: "Wilt thou upon the high and 
giddy mast seal up the ship-boy's eyes, :;: * Canst thou, par- 
tial sleep! give thy repose to the wet ship-boy in an hour so rude, 
and, in the calmest night, deny it to a king? Then, happy, low, lie 
down; uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." In the same easy 
flow, the following description of rain is given by Byron in his poem 
of the Alpine Storm: "Far along, from peak to peak, the rattling- 
crags among, leaps the live thunder! Not from one lone cloud, but 
every mountain now hath found a tongue, and Jura answ ers through 
her misty shroud back to the joyous Alps, who call to her aloud! 
* * And the big rain comes dancing to the earth." This is a 
clear picture, even to one who has never witnessed a thunderstorm 



560 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

in the mountains. Examples without number may be readily col- 
lected from each and every grade of description. The testimony 
of writers confirms the fact that when the sub-conscious mind is 
awake or partly so, the production is better and the task of compo- 
sition easier. Goldsmith's greatest work was written in an incred- 
ibly short time; and the same is true of Sheridan's masterpiece, and 
of many another gem of literature. It is also true of Daniel Web- 
ster's greatest oration; it fell from him without time for 
preparation. 

§K St 

** 545 § 

2f & 



? 



$^5fl3@?$$$ft??€^??$$&»^ 



The arrangement of words may be magnetic. 

This is the 545th Ealston Principle. It differs widely from the 
one preceding. That referred to written thoughts, intending to show 
that there could be magnetism without the use of the voice, and 
without the personal influence that is generally present in a speech 
that wins. In writing, in conversation, in argument, and in 
elaborate address, it is possible to inspire the arrangement with 
magnetic construction. This is a gift, and one of no small conse- 
quence. It may be illustrated in every kind of way. The best 
practical use that may be made of the charm, is perhaps seen in the 
law professor who many years ago impressed himself upon his hear- 
ers by clothing the dryest of subjects in attractive phrases. It v - 
then said of him that the future would place him high among men 
of his profession, and he since rose to the very top rank, having 
achieved an international reputation. The same subjects, the 
same details expressed by the ablest lecturers of his time, even 
charged with personal magnetism to the highest degree, were made 
more fascinating by him because of the arrangement of words. 

Many persons acquire magnetism and yet are unfor- 
tunate in their arrangement of the words they employ, especially in 
conversation. Take the case of the young man who reallv was 
magnetic, but had no speech outlet for it; he proposed a number of 
times to the girl he loved most dearly, but his use of the words was 
bad; the words themselves were well selected, but he put them to- 
gether in a very unfortunate manner, and she rejected him. In his 
utter helplessness he resorted to the last resource, that of pourir g 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF EXALTATION 561 

out his love in writing. In personality he was magnetic; in the ar- 
rangement of words in speech he was otherwise; but, in writing, his 
magnetism came again to him. She could not resist the strong ap- 
peal of the letter, and accepted him. Left to himself he could mas- 
ter the slower process of the pen. In her presence he spoke as 
fluently, but not as effectively. 

There are many ways of saying the same thing. The 
phraseology of the Bible must ever stand as the masterwork of in- 
spired arrangement, both in the original tongues and in the trans- 
lations. It fails only in the septuagint. One can collect tens of 
thousands of beautiful and wonderfully effective phrases that are 
full of this charm, and the close student of that sublime work re- 
ceives some of the inspiration that belongs to its creation. Shake- 
speare, Milton and Homer complete the quartet of grand magnetic 
forces in the noblest literature. One should fairly revel in these 
works, if charm of style, plentitude of epigrams, and exalted flights 
of mind are sought. 

I 546 g 



A person may be self-magnetized and greatly bene- 
fited by the operation of hope. 

This is the 546th Ralston Principle. It brings us on new 
ground, although still in the realm of exaltation. The law here 
taught has its opposite in that earlier estate where the faculties 
were darkened by baneful influences, and there we learned that a 
person may be self-magnetized and greatly injured by the opera- 
tion of fear. Without hope life is not at any time worth living. 
A low instinct, prevailing among animal creation, teaches the indi- 
vidual to struggle for its life; but there is nothing to hope for 
beyond food and shelter. 

The true man or woman of to-day looks upon the 
necessaries of life as incidents only of existence, useful in maintain- 
ing the faculties at their best; and beyond these aids as of no value, 
certainly not goals for which the race has been created. He who 
has nothing beyond the care of the body in this life to look forward 
to, is poor in the most abject sense of the word. It is well to b 
able to earn a living, to be affluent enough to provide a home, and 



562 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

to ward off the enemy of life's last years, a helpless and dependent 
old age. There is more than enough ten times over in this world 
to shelter, clothe and feed every human being on earth, and to pro- 
vide the main luxuries of the day; and the time may come when 
men and women, endowed with personal power, may win a full 
share from the unequally distributed fund of supply. But the 
human race is on earth for other reasons as well as this. 

There is no power worth having that is not held by 
magnetism. The blessings of wealth are lacking even with abund- 
ant accumulations, if there is not the ability to command its influ- 
ence. Misery is personified in the homes of those weaklings who 
are puppets of hoarded riches. They know nothing of the affirma- 
tive pleasures of existence. Ask them what hope they have, and it 
is in the next ball or the next card-party. There is no far horizon, 
no streaming rays of light bursting from the golden bed of a rising 
sun. All is fenced in by narrow walls and false landscapes. Prog- 
ress ceases with hope. There is no magnet ahead to draw the 
mind and soul on to their better estates. In proportion as hope is 
strong, character is sturdy, effort is increased, power enlarged and 
magnetism intensified. It is better to create this magnet, if none 
exists; for without it the rudderless, aimless, drifting ship has 
neither course nor port, and the mariner no object in living 
dyin 



'g- 



fg 547 1 

Hope, in its highest exaltation, spiritualizes life. 

This is the 5-17 th Ralston Principle. It may be argued that 
the process of salvation, whereby the new birth takes place, is in- 
duced by self-magnetism. Indeed several of our students hav< 
vanced the claim and attempted to sustain it by arguments and 
proofs. We at one time came very near entertaining the same 
opinion, but found that the real facts broke down the theory. Con- 
version, so-called, is a creative act, if it is genuine, and a temporary 
delusion otherwise. The subject is fully discussed in the work 
"Immortality." Our present principle has a far different meaning. 

In the last principle we saw the operation of hope in 
this life; the care of the body as an incident, and some :\ 
for living and progressing, as a magnet. Here we meet another 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF EXALTATIOH 563 

kind of magnet; we sec hope in its highest exaltation shedding its 
influence over this existence. Between the common or even the 
lofty hope of a life limited by the confines of earth, and the ex- 
pectation that is based upon a hope that reaches beyond all human 
experience, there is a breadth of territory as wide as time. The 
poor lover who sees the moon shining in the zenith of the sky, and 
knows that its light is kissing the cheek of a maiden beyond the 
palace walls that shut him out, would fain catch the reflection of 
her beauty in the same light that bathes his own face. So the eye 
of imagination, conjuring up the splendors of a princely kingdom 
in the far Orient, sees the same sun that daily beholds the distant 
glories, and envies him his knowledge. Earthly ambition is the 
moon of our lesser life; exalted hope is the dazzling sun that shines 
over realms we cannot reach. Of that sun we are far away behold- 
ers, and we can see it even when its rays fall alike on us and on the 
kingdom beyond the separating mists. If it could reflect its 
visions we would possess its secrets. 

That which is superhuman in man is aroused and 
called into life by the magnetic impulse of any lofty aspiration 
large and high enough to draw it forth. It is everywhere agreed 
that man as he is, without the aid of the inducements that arc 
thrown around him by systems of ethical training or by the excite- 
ment of exhortation, contains the ground-soil in which the spiritual 
plant may grow. By this is not meant the ghost-theory of spiritual- 
ists. If there were such a condition as spirit-life, in the sense in 
which such a theory thrusts it upon us, the fate of humanity would 
be deplorable. All the lore of spiritualism, of which but little is 
honest, presents not one ray of hope, not one gleam of happiness, 
nothing but fear, fright, lunacy and misfortune, wherever it is 
intensified. 

The operation of an exalted hope is quite the opposite. 
The higher the ambition, the greater the goal. The more we in- 
tensify its power, the more delightful is the sensation of its magnet- 
ism. It leads to light, always opening out a brighter realm, always 
reveling the whiteness of our inner life, and telling us that the 
more we cast away of the dross of existence, the nearer we shall 
come to an understanding of what heaven is like, and the better we 
shall qualify ourselves for the hereafter. On earth certain moral, 
mental, and spiritual qualities give a man the citizen-hip of the 
world; leaving the mental behind him after death as suited only to 



564 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

these environments, his moral and spiritual qualities must give him 
the citizenship of the universe. He who has a pure heart, who 
loves justice and lives by principle would be at home anywhere in 
God's domains. 



Magnetism perfects itself in the charms of absolute 
happiness. 

This is the 548th Ealston Principle. There are many systems 
of development offered to humanity; some great, some exalted, 
some small and some very low. Left to natural selection each in- 
dividual draws to himself whatever his temperament most easily 
affiliates with. The scale of choice is of interminable length. 
Like attracts like. A coarse country bumpkin, fed on delicate quail, 
would not assimilate it; hog and cabbage best suit his temperament. 
A refined stomach will not assimilate rough food. A Georgia 
cracker will digest clay. Villains hate flowers. Beautiful music 
scrapes on the soul of a murderer as a nail scratching window glass. 
Poetry impresses the modern journalist as art impresses a clam. A 
stretch of lovely landscape affects the horse-racing gambler as a 
wood-pile affects a tramp — he does not care to see it. 

A noble temperament rises out of this bumpkin con- 
dition of body, mind and soul, and assimilates something from the 
inner atmosphere that enters the body; while a low order of being, 
so far from drawing in love, refinement, beauty, fragrance and di- 
vine aspirations, can assimilate better the fumes of beer and to- 
bacco', two allurements that tempt only the lowest temperaments, 
despite the fashion of smoking. As an illustration of the rule that 
like attracts like, we find that an overwhelming majority of people 
who possess the beer or tobacco temperaments are passionately fond 
of rotten cabbage in the form of sauer-kraut: rotten milk in the 
form of old cheese, and rotten kidneys in the form of sausage meat, 
a diet that is the religious pinnacle of some people, and rises in im- 
portance above the affairs of state. The governmental party in 
England was overthrown and routed by a proposed tax on beer. 
The majority of the sovereign voters of America sell their birth- 
right, — the holy privilege of voting, — for a few drinks of whiskey 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF EXALTATION 565 

ail' I beer. To change the fortunes of existence it is necessary to 
change the temperament. 

A physical temperament draws nothing but earth to 
itself; it is made of clay, feeds on the products of the soil, no mat- 
ter what may be its diet and drink, and gets ita happiness in this 
debased realm. The world is full of such people. You promise a 
man a position worth more money in the year than the one he now 
holds, and he will be pleased; but ask him to take something into 
his stomach in the way of food of extra choice quality, and his 
pleasure is excessive; ask him to take a drink, and the superlative 
state of happiness is at once reached. He is magnetized by a 
merely physical influence. Ask him, instead of the beer or whiskey, 
to follow in the footsteps of greatness, to enter upon a kingly man- 
hood, and he will entertain for you and your proposition the most 
profound disgust of which the human mind is capable. 

These beast-temperaments are not happy. The rich 
tell the world they are not happy; but most of them are of the 
beast-temperament; there are some magnificent men and women in 
the homes of wealth. No person is happy who is held under by 
any influence, and this is true in .all ranks. The genius of mastery, 
first over self and then over others, is the source and soul of true 
happiness. Poverty or even ordinary success, financially as well as 
in all other respects, is inexcusable. We not only believe, but we 
know that every human being who is capable of appreciating the 
power of this training in magnetism, is able to win wealth, position, 
success and happiness in life; to realize full contentment and pleas- 
ure here without lessening the heritage of the hereafter: in fact to 
ascend to the heights of earth in order to be closer to the plains of 
heaven. 



549 



2» 
ft 



Exalted and highly magnetized mental vision unites 
the natural and the sub-conscious minds. 

This is the 549th Ralston Principle. It might be the last 
were it not for the fact that there is an almost universal desire 
among the students of this power to test its efficacy in far away 
realms, not only of the planet on which we dwell, but in the great 
universe itself. Consequently another law of magnetism will follow 



566 



UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 



this and close the book. The present principle is probably the 
most important of the series, for it relates to the one thing that is 
desired above all else in the attainment of human power, — the abil- 
ity to look into the sub-conscious realm of the brain with the eyes 
of the conscious mind. 

There is no study of magnetism that does not teach the 
acquisition of control by one person over another, and the ultimate 
end of such control in the common systems is to hypnotize the sub- 
ject and throw open his sub-conscious mind. This is considered the 
climax of success. There the power ends. There are two main 
facts, however, that dislodge the security of such position; first, it 
is not a magnetic but an hypnotic control that thus overpowers the 
subject; second, the sub-consciousness that is awakened is of the 
lowest stratum of quality and value. As hypnotism is the negative 
as well as the debased side of magnetism, so its realm of vision is 
likewise mean in nature and limited in scope. 

On the heights above, the power is of an opposite char- 
acter, and has so many points of difference that a whole book might 
be devoted to the consideration of its greatness without exhausting 
the subject. Here are some comparative propositions: 



NEGATIVE. 

Hypnotism opens the sub-con- 
scious faculty by degrading and 
temporarily destroying the con- 
sciousness of the mind. 



POSITIVE. 

Magnetism opens the sub-con- 
scious faculty by uplifting and 
strengthening the consciousness 
of the mind. 



NEGATIVE. 

Hypnotism uses one individual 
for the enlightenment of another 
in sub-conscious operations. 



POSITIVE. 

Magnetism may give the pow- 
ers of sub-consciousness to its 
own possessor. 



NEGATIVE. 
Hypnotism allows to its victim 
no knowledge of the wonders of 
sub-consciousness, and reveals to 
others a broken and limited in- 
terpretation only. 



POSITIVE. 

Magnetism allows to its pos- 
sessor a complete knowledge of 
the wonders of sub-conscious- 
ness through the most exalted 
uses of the faculties. 



We might go on for pages showing the difference be- 
teen these two powers, as there are other points almost without 
number. The faculty of sub-consciousness is the youngest yet of 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF EXALTATION 567 

human discoveries. Science has givei] due attention to the forces 
of the mechanical world, and is now turning its eye to man's own 
wondrous composition. In the in evil able uplifting of the race a 
new form of humanity must ere long come upon earth and his mind 
will unfold, adding to material consciousness the keener limitl 
vision of a mental force whose nature and value we are fast learning. 
A new work is now in press on that subject, entitled "The Mind'; 
Mind/' which is in this series of books, and belongs to the new 
eightieth degree. As we have said before a full volume may easily 
be written on the subject. 

Everywhere in science it is admitted, as far as thought 
has been given to this particular line of investigation, that the sub- 
conscious faculty is destined to be the next great subject of interest. 
You would be surprised to know the number and the names of the 
great men who are even now at work in this direction, investigat- 
ing and experimenting, and all the leading universities and schools 
of the civilized world are working with them. The one objectional 
feature in the whole study is the fact that subjects must be fouml 
and used. Science is dependent upon the mere clairvoyant or cata- 
leptic; generally a person of dwarfed mind in one case, or of a dis- 
eased nervous system in the other. The broken nature of the rev- 
elations and the many contradictions of statement, despite a marvel- 
ous accuracy in a few instances, have lent a flavor of uncertainty to 
the whole matter. It seems as if the power were there, but buried 
under a weight of incumbrance from which no one is able to extri- 
cate it. And, were it procurable for use in such way, no person 
would wish to carry about a subject who must be manipulated, put 
to sleep or otherwise used, and then dealt with at certain time3 
only, for the class of information to be afforded. 

The secret has been discovered by accident, and in the 
lowest uses, as has been the case with many of the greatest blessings 
of invention and research. What has been shown to man thus far, 
in the form of glimpses, was intended to excite his curiosity and 
lead to a full investigation into the whole realm of discovery. This 
is nature's plan, for she can do nothing grand except through the 
agency of civilized man. Take him away and all progress would 
come to a standstill. Whatever is to be known of the further en- 
dowments and powers of nature, man, religion and God, must await 
the zeal of human advance. Something has been ascertained in the 
past hundred years; much more is at hand. 



568 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

The chief end to be attained is the union of the won- 
derful mind of man with its fullness of conscious power, and the 
inner faculty of sub-consciousness of which nature has so often and 
so astoundingly given us hints. It is the case of a mind within a 
mind; the inner brain having omnipotent knowledge, seeing all 
things as clearly as if there were no obstructions, and yet cut off from 
the normal mind by the mere lack of a communicating agent. 
There are but two propositions to be considered: First, is there such 
a faculty? Second, is it possible to connect the mind with it in the 
same person, so that the knowledge may be known and acted upon? 
That there is such a faculty is acknowledged by all persons who 
have examined the question. Science admits it, all important in- 
stitutions of learning admit it, and nature proves it. 

Some of those who are certain of the existence of an 
inner mind having omnipotent knowledge, seem inclined to believe 
that it is intended for another world than this; but as its knowledge 
is useful in this world, it certainly has a place here. Others are dis- 
posed to regard sub-consciousness as a form of inspiration, simply 
because it is possessed by geniuses in secular matters, and by the 
loftiest morality in religious cases. The mental vision of St. John 
was of this kind. There is no doubt that he saw into his inner 
mind, which had been exalted by his intense force of religious fervor, 
and it does not detract from the theory of inspiration to say that his 
purity of life and vigor of feeling had united the two faculties. In- 
spiration is a plane that all may reach who are able to climb so high. 

In all ages there have been two classes of people ; one 
has been too ready to believe anything strange, and the other has 
been too ready to pronounce as a fraud anything that smacks of the 
supernatural. In the case of Mahomet, the latter class never 
stopped to think that the so-called prophet was a cataleptic, and 
that sub-consciousness was attached to that disease. By some pro- 
cess the visions that came to him in his cataleptic conditions were 
transferred to his normal mind, and this indicated a most superior 
power. His life was that of a man of extraordinary gifts in many 
directions. It is assumed that he invented the subject-matter of his 
visions. Still he delved in the realm of sub-consciousness, probably 
entering at the lower stratum and coming out near the top. His 
conquests of friends and enemies were marvelous; and the fact that 
Ms wife was his first convert and her relations were his most ardent 
followers, shows that there was less of fraud than is commonly sup- 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF EXALTATION 569 

po^ed. His closest friends believed most thoroughly in him. His- 
tory, in our religion, calls him an impostor; yet countless millions 
have died in his faith, and his work filled in a void that only another 
Mahomet could occupy. 

Coming nearer to our own times we see the case of one 
who was discredited by the leading scientists of his day, yet who has 
out-written and out-lived them all. Take the history of Sweden- 
borg from the testimony of impartial biographers and honest 
though opposing critics, and you will find much that cannot be ac- 
counted for except under our principle. During his entire life he 
was honored by the potentates of his country and retained their 
fullest confidence to the day of his death. He changed his name 
to Swedenborg because of being ennobled by his sovereign in earlier 
life. Scientists knew that his many works on subjects of the deep- 
est value, especially his philosophical books and his great system of 
cosmogony, could not have been written from any information at 
hand; yet, after his death, the severest critics and the most learned 
of scientists could not find many serious flaws in his treatises, ex- 
cept where he expressly theorized, and they found an enormous 
number of scientific truths, far in advance of the age in which he 
lived; so many, indeed, that it required nearly a hundred years after 
his last book was written to verify all he had said. 

Whence came the power if not under our present prin- 
ciple? Theophilus Parsons, himself a great American, says of Swe- 
denborg: "He exhibited in many instances a knowledge of facts 
which, as it seemed, implied an opening of his spiritual senses/' 
His chief opposing critic was Kant, the famous German philosopher; 
yet he said of him: "I declare we must either suppose greater intel- 
ligence and truth at the basis of Swedenborg's writings than first 
impressions would give, or that it is a mere accident. Such a won- 
derful agreement exists between his doctrines and the deepest re- 
sults of reason, that there is no other alternative whereby the cor- 
respondence can be explained." Then Theophilus Parsons goes on 
to give many instances of Swedenborg's exhibition of the sub-con- 
scious faculty in secular matters, so clearly proved that his con- 
temporaries admitted that the "evidence is unanswerable." His 
revelations were often public, and in some cases to the king or 
queen; as when he stated the details of the fire in Stockholm (three 
hundred miles away) on July 19, 1759, describing the hour it com- 
menced, what was burned, how it spread, when it was extinguished, 



570 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

and the various incidents, all to a large party in Gottenberg. The 
Governor, hearing of the statements, sent for Swedenborg, who re- 
peated the full details; yet it was two days later when a courier ar- 
rived with news of the conflagration, exactly confirming all that 
had been told. This is but one of many instances. The enemies 
of Swedenborg base their opposition to him on the following state- 
ment which he made public: "The Lord Himself manifested Him- 
self to me in person." He also stated that his eyes had been 
opened to visions beyond earth. How shall we account for his 
powers, and for the following that he now has in this age among the 
intelligent classes? His errors were due to his theories and not to 
his vision-power; they were the product of his mind, not of his sub- 
conscious faculty. The dross of earth attends everything. Gold 
comes out of mud. 

We might go on citing cases without limit; but we 
have taken those of persons whose powers cannot be explained ex- 
cept by the union of the two faculties, the conscious mind and the 
sub-conscious. They are more readily verified. We have an 
abundance of personal evidence, the chief value of which is to 
prove to us the genuineness of our principle, as a law in science. 
As the law involved is fully discussed in the next and final principle 
we will consider the matter under that. 



r.-. «www« -' -' - - s b B - s -- ---=-.; 

-' -; 

I) 550 1 

W fie 

Magnetism may be made the agent of distant 
control. 

This is the 550th Raltson Principle. It is peculiarly worded. 
Where powers exist, there must be agencies, and agents throu. 
which they operate. Everything has something controlling it. 
Human life is the direct object of the contact of many inrluenc 
but not one of them passes through empty space. As sound and 
light must have some medium each, through which to pass, so 
thought and feeling require means of connecting the influence with 
the object controlled. 

Our principle works both ways. Magnetism is the 
power by which a person may control or be controlled; and its cul- 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF EXALTATION 571 

tivation may lead to cither result. That is to say, it is in the power 
of a person to so develop magnet ism as to place himself under the in- 
iluence of other realms above him, or in touch with forces of which 
his natural mind knows nothing, as well as to throw out a control 
toward those who are weaker than he is. Thus magnetism is the 
law of the universe; and it makes the possessor a receiver and a 
giver; always being influenced by the greater power, and influenc- 
ing the lesser; provided always there has been established a means 
of communication. One person may be given this power from 
another, and yield back a greater force in payment of the gift. 

The operation of distant magnetic control is best 
started by the cultivation of mental vision; and it is needless to 
say that this must be based on the acquirement of magnetism in 
the way so often stated in this volume. A review of the various 
principles will give full light on that part of the subject. The 
practice of mental vision must be conducted in privacy until it is 
strong enough to bear interruptions and diverting influences. No 
person is aware, who has not tried it, of what may be accomplished 
by a determined will turned in on one's self in periods of long seclu- 
sion. Experiments of every kind have been made, and are being 
made, under these principles; and the unvarying testimony of the 
lives of geniuses and gifted men, proves the same law. Seclusion, 
a turning in of the magnetic will on one's self, and a giving up to 
the power of an exalted purpose, have ripened the sub-conscious 
faculty and opened the inner mind without loss of natural con- 
sciousness. 

The experiment that tells the most and is most severe, 
is that which enables a person to so intensify his magnetism as to 
force his presence upon other persons at a distance. "I will appear 
to you at such a place and at such an hour," he says. He may 
or may not succeed. The fact that he can do so, has been amply 
proved. If he tries nineteen times and fails every time, but suc- 
ceeds the twentieth, he has done something wonderful. The fail- 
ure is nothing unusual; the success is, and it carries with it the 
proof of a great power somewhere. Such experiments have been 
carried on by design, and often with results in every respect satis- 
factory, showing that the phenomenon of appearance is not acci- 
dental. 

We will not continue the consideration of the giving 
side of this question, for it encroaches on the new book now in 



572 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

press, entitled "The Mind's Mind." Our purpose here is to deal 
with the receiving side of magnetic control, or the question, What 
can a man draw to himself from out the mists of the unknown? 
There are thousands of ways in which the power may be used, and 
we will name but few of them, as the whole subject belongs to 
another work. If you wish to know what is going on in the mind 
of another, the sub-conscious faculty will reach that person's brain. 
This is telepathy. Suppose you wish to take advantage of that 
thought, knowing it, by displacing it with another idea more in 
accord with your purposes toward that person; that is magnetism 
founded upon sub-consciousness. It is magnetism because it is 
power over another. Its foundation rests upon telepathy by which 
the knowledge of what exists is made clear. 

Many a person is gifted with the ability to look into 
transactions at a distance; but few are magnetic enough to control 
them. The former power is very common in embryo; for there 
is scarcely a man or woman who does not exercise this faculty 
daily, or, at least, who is not played upon by it. Yet its presence 
is rarely ever recognized; its messages not often interpreted. You 
are the recipient, no doubt, of a hundred impressions in every 
twenty-four hours, not one of which are you able to understand: 
first, for the reason that you are ignorant of their coming; second, 
because you have only a vague idea at best of what they mean even 
when they are strong enough to arouse your attention. Let us 
examine a very simple law; one not great enough to grow into a 
principle at this place. To start with, the premises must be proved. 

These premises are embraced in the well known fact 
that all persons, or nearly all, are recipients of telepathic messages. 
We have talked with or heard from a vast number of men and 
women, and never yet have we learned of the existence of an in- 
dividual who has not received such messages. The question has 
been put to countless thousands, '"Have you ever read the thoughts 
of another, caught an idea before it was expi 38 1, or received im- 
pressions of transactions by telepathy ? v and the answer is always 
"Yes." We will not take the time now to extend further the dis- 
cussion of this part of the subject, as the premises are admitted t ) 
be true by all persons. The simple law to which we referred v 
that which is naturally based upon such premises. 

Nature has been hammering away for centuries, trying 
to give man the hint of the power that lies within his control, yet 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF EXALTATIOX 573 

is seemingly out of it. In some cases, she has made the evident 
of this power so strong that he ought to have followed it to its end; 
but he remained frightened and passive. The cry of ghost-, 
witches, demons, and what not, has alarmed the masses and. ridi- 
culed the investigator, merely because everything that cannot be 
explained by the ordinary senses has been ascribed to the realm of 
spirits. There is absolutely no reason for connecting the revela- 
tions of sub-consciousness with occultism or supernatural opera- 
tions, any more than the sense of smell or taste can be ascribed to 
such relationship. 

The brain with its powers of magnifying is able to 
connect forms of microscopic images into demons of more than life 
size, as in fever and delirium; and this terrifies; but no one is 
alarmed when the microscope itself reveals as much and more. 
Yet this same brain, stimulated by the force of impressions, is able 
to take a peep into transactions that are beyond the reach of the 
ordinary faculties, and the cry of spiritualism is raised. So every 
hint of nature that is intended to arouse an interest in this unde- 
veloped power is at once charged to the same realm of spirits, and 
some astute professors have gone so far as to seek a proof of immor- 
tality in nothing but telepathy. What could be more absurd? 

The sub-conscious powers have always existed ;tey ^* 
have been waiting for man's invention so that they might be opened 
out hi all their wonders > as electricity and all natural forces have 
waited. What' we know of the magnificent uses of the electric 
fluid has been discovered in the most recent years; yet something 
has always been known of it, and hints enough have been thrown 
out to attract man's attention, even for two thousand years and 
more. Sub-consciousness is a greater power, and, when developed, 
will make the world a heaven and man a god. It has in it the 
elements of omniscience 1 , all-knowledge, and this is the basis of 
omnipotence, all-power. There is but one agent capable of de- 
veloping it, and this agent is magnetism. Hints enough of this 
agency have also been given to man, to no use. The negative side 
of magnetism is, and always has been, associated with sub-con- 
sciousness, and thus it has been known only in its lowest form. 

We have said that magnetism is the only agent capable _ 
of developing the higher powers of sub-consciousness, and this is 
true. The process is not difficult, once the magnetic temperament 
is established; and there are very few men and women who can- 



574 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

not establish that. Due attention to the exercises and regime of 
the first volume, and the influences that arise from the mere read- 
ing of this volume, if earnestly done, will come very near establish- 
ing the magnetic temperament. The more your life is saturated 
with this book's principles, even from thought alone, and from that 
shifting of one's daily habits that attends a thoughtful mind, the 
more speedily will your magnetic temperament be founded; and it 
will grow. We advise always the use of these pages, the reading 
of all the principles, a continual reference to the laws and facts 
stated, and a natural influence will naturally follow. 

Then comes into play the simple law that tells us if] 
any faculty is encouraged, it will grow. This is seen in the culture 
of epigrams, of felicitations, of rhythm, of rhyme, of poetical fancy, 
of flights of the imagination, of invention, of discovery, of tele- 
pathic impressions, and of sub-consciousness. Let any person of 
magnetic temperament take advantage of any impression that conies 
to him, study it out and develop it by the use of mental vision, and 
although it may take a long time at the first trial to obtain a clear 
sight of the incident the effort will be well spent, for ever} 7 sub- 
sequent trial will be easier and shorter. This is tested without 
difficulty by any one who has developed the magnetic temperament. 
The discerning of an impression is not easy at first. It may take 
one of three moods, happiness, gloom or dullness. We will look 
at instances of each. 

A man who proposed to follow out the origin of a 
certain impression found himself one evening under a weight of 
despondency due to nothing that he had any knowledge of through 
the ordinary senses. Had something gone wrong in his busim 
or otherwise, the mood would have been natural. So he concluded 
that it was due to some form of telepathy. He had studied and 
had acquired a magnetic temperament; he also knew what the 
power of mental vision could accomplish, and he set to work to 
probe this impression. It is necessary to be alone — at least until 
the habit is formed of penetrating such influences. He retired to 
a room where no sound or act of another could distract his 
thoughts; and he had nothing left on which to work except the 
despondency that had come over him. It was not a strong mood. 
He sat and thought of it, but refused to allow his mind to take 
flight at will; for, had it done so, he would have gone out of the 
depressed condition into a score of other thoughts. The pivc. 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF EXALTATION 575 

is not difficult to any person; and his method is the guide to all 
others. 

He merely asked himself why he was despondent ; and 

he thought of it to the exclusion of everything else. Then he tried 
to trace the events hack to the moment when he first recognized 
the mood. He was walking home, having alighted from the car; 
and, in passing a house at the corner, he felt a heavy weight within. 
It was to this moment that he turned his mind, going over the 
brief distance he had walked, and trying to put himself in the same 
mood. It was a very easy thing to do, sitting now alone and call- 
ing up the bit of unimportant experience. He kept his mind upon 
the trifling incidents until the mental vision suddenly enlarged. 
This was right. It is always the result of concentrated thought; 
and all persons are able to do as much, although those who have 
cultivated the power, as under the lessons of this book, make more 
speedy progress and go further. He saw in his mind a brick build- 
ing; it faded away like a dream; he rebuilt it again and again, and 
soon he saw it more distinctly. It was one to which he was 
familiar; but he could not locate it. The signs were on it, but 
not distinct enough for him to read. He was not yet an adept in 
the use of the sub-conscious faculty. Satisfied that the sight of 
the building meant something, he resolved to keep his mind upon 
it until a more distinct view was obtained. The despondency was 
deepening, and he had some doubt as to his wakefulness; but he 
refused to be disturbed; having given orders that no one should 
interrupt him as he had important work to do. So he had. 

Store doors now appeared ; they were somewhat familiar; 
but he could not satisfy himself as to what building or to whose 
store they belonged. He saw within; piles of goods stood on either 
side; a counting room was lighted up, and the inner shades were 
drawn, but he saw beyond them as easily as if they were trans- 
parent. Two men were at work on books, and his name was writ- 
ten on a page of paper, as though heading the list. Yet, with all 
this help, he could not discern their faces nor read any words ex- 
cept his own name. The gloom increased. He was very de- 
spondent. Under his name and to the right of it a large sum of 
money was distinctly written. Then he thought of a firm that 
owed him more than any other three debtors, and at once he knew 
the men. He now saw their own signs on the building and by the 
doorway. He recognized the faces of these men; and realized that 



576 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

both partners were at work in their office concocting some scheme 
whereby he would lose more than his own business could stand. 
This firm was as good as gold, so the phrase went; nor did he even 
have a suspicion of their weakness, He believed what he now saw 
through his sub-conscious faculty; but that was telepathy. He 
possessed magetism and must use it. 

Arousing from his lethargy, and keeping his mind on 
the two men, he sent into their counting room a bolt of intense 
thought that came from all the concentrated energies of his nature, 
now thoroughly in earnest. This he followed by bolt after bolt. 
The influence took effect; he saw the two men look at each other, 
then go to the door and look around. They thought they had 
heard something. They came back in alarm. He saw them open 
their ledger to a page bearing his name; they were both talking of 
their indebtedness to him. He must act at once, and he did. A 
few words reached them ere their night work was done; and they 
came like another bolt. "Everything known. Account must be 
settled at once, or attachment will be made." It was settled. The 
men asked him how he had obtained the information, but the kept 
the matter to himself. He pounced upon them a few days too soon 
for their convenience; but they told him that it was their intention 
to pay his claim prior to suspension. This they had decided upon 
in that night-conference. He then knew that his magnetism had 
reached and influenced them. 

In happy moods for which there is no visible or con- 
nected cause, it is possible to trace their origin in just the way we 
have described. But many telepathic messages come when the 
mood is neither bright nor dark, but just dull. The brain seems 
stupid without cause. The method of procedure is to trace it back 
to your condition when you were first aware of the immediate dull- 
ness, and this is always possible, if you are seeking to give it at- 
tention. Then do as the man did whose experience we have just 
stated. Above all things, prevent the wandering tendencies of 
their mind; keep the thought concentrated. Mental vision is the 
most rapid developing power associated with man's faculties. The 
moment you secure the least clue, then throw all your powers of 
thought upon it. Watch it, and it will grow. Intensify your will 
power, and the details will become sharper, while the scene will 
assume greater depth and breadth. As soon as you have divined 
the vision and found it a fact, though far away, then you hold the 



REALM OF Till: ESTATE OF EXALTATION 577 

reins of eontrolj a line of communication is now established, ;in<l 
your influence, like a voice, a thonghi or a transfiguration, will 
come into some oilier person's mind or presence and dictate your 

will. 

These things are going on all the time but in embryo 

conditions. No life is altogether Five from them, excepi thai a 
person who is self-mastered through the culture of magnetism, 
may invite or reject them al will. It has been proved possible to 
step into the room where friends or relatives may be, and become 
one of their party though thousands of miles away; and even to 
become the controlling member of such party, while unseen and 
unknown. If you do not believe this, \vy it. Von need as the 
basis, a largo stock of magnetism and the magnetic temperament, 
to which must be added the thoroughly developed power,- of menial 
vision. Then the results are easy. Do not make the mistake of 
supposing that you can locate a person at will by general thinking: 
and do not make the blunder of believing that whai yon see is 
spiritualism. You will see facts, not spirits. A woman who 
son was in Europe, thousands of miles away, wished to locate him 
and influence him; but, try as hard as she might, she could not 
succeed in either; as she possessed neither mental vision nor mag- 
netism. Another woman under similiar circumstances accom- 
plished the full purpose of her wishes; as she had both powers 
under control, and acquired them solely by leisurely study. In 
trying to locate her sou, she did not merely think of him and hope 
for him; that was too general; she devoted her thoughts to some 
specific act of his that was associated with herself, as his lasl 
promise to her. This she pondered upon and set it again in motion 
at a time and place where no counter influence could disturb her. 
Soon she saw a room, a table, cards, chips of dilTerent colors, and 
villainous eyes all about the form of her son. She knew he was in 
a gambling den, and her magnetism was aroused to an intensity 
of white heat. Suddenly the young man dropped his cards, aro€ 
and looked at her, then went out. He wrote her a letter stating 
the circumstances, and adding, "Mother, I saw your form distinctly 
appear before me; and I never will, never in all my life will I 
gamble again." She saved him by her magnetism. Ee thinks he 
saw a ghost. She knows it was merely the action of the sub-con- 
scious faculty. That you may accomplish the same results and ac- 
quire even greater power is as certain as thai you I treat he. 



578 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

The true sub-conscious faculty tends upward toward 
perfection. A complete machine is a work of the highest skill; it 
is an example of integrity; for, were some part missing or defective, 
the integrity of its construction would be marred or "broken. There 
is but one item in the moral code of the universe, and that is hon- 
esty. The ten commandments are different ways of saying, "Be 
honest." The criminal codes of the world with their thousands 
of restrictions are all variations of the one command, "Be honest." 
The man or woman who is perfectly honest, needs no creed, no 
decalogue, no code, no religion. Grand and ennobling as all true 
theology must ever be, it crumbles into dust before the standard of 
integrity; it pales and is lost in the light of perfect honesty. When 
a human being has reached that moral stage where nothing can 
deviate him from this one quality, he has outstripped all others 
in the race to heaven. Some clay before the twentieth century has 
far advanced, when men and women are using their sub-conscious 
minds as we now employ electricity, and they can see into the mo- 
tives of their fellow beings, then there will be a burning light 
shedding its piercing rays into all brains and hearts; then the 
* criminal codes of the world will have but one interpretation, "Be 

honest;" then religions, Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, pagan and all, 
will cluster about the rock-built temple of God, whose every stone 
bears (he whole story of salvation, "Be honest." That we can 
minds and motives now, is true; that the faculty is coming rapidly 
lo the front, is true; that its development will be full and wid 
true; and then it must also In 1 (rue that humanity, with its guise 
thrown off, must be honest. 

Thus the proof is abundant and clear that magnetism, 
employing (ho exalted state of sub-consciousness, must rebuild 
(he human race, giving it the powers of omniscience and omnipo- 
tence, relatively speaking. This is no idle statement; no hi 
remark made in a moment of enthusiasm; it is a conclusion founded 
upon long years of investigation, long years of growing powers, 
long years of common, sensible, practical observation among stu- 
dents of a faculty which, like electricity, has always been suspected, 
but only recently developed. The world is destined to advance 
from one plane to another, ever higher and better; but it plung 
before it Leaps. So history has always recorded its past. We are 
in the abyss at (he close of (he dying century. Confusion every- 
where reigns. The church is sick at heart; the honest man is in a 



REALM OF THE ESTATE OF /'\ I/.7.I7/OV r>79 

fog; Bensuality, drunkenness, cupidity, greed and infidelity are the 
five stars thai Lure the race on to its plunge. Then the great leap 
will be taken; the air will clear; the sun will shine; and a new plane 
will be reached. This is the past. II is the future. 

The tendency of all nature, in and out of life, is toward 
honesty, because honesty is integrity, and integrity is perfection. 
This tendency accompanies progress, and is the channel through 
which omniscience is reached. We are not preaching, any more 
than the engine-builder preaches when he makes a flawless machine. 
Integrity is a mechanical idea. We say that the race and the world 
are on an upward incline, and that perfection is the goal. Hu- 
manity is, thus far, the best product of this part of the universe, 
but it is quite short of perfection. In its imperfectness it is un- 
satisfactory and unsatisfied. It lacks knowledge and it lacks 
power, because it is imperfect. Honesty is almost an unknown 
quality as a flawless guide. To do one thing and intend another, 
to speak and think in opposite directions, to deceive any human 
being, to make a wrong, to mar the heart, these are conflicts with 
self; they weaken the powers of life; they scatter magnetism, for 
they are dishonest. Imagine a machine striking its parts against 
each other, or scraping with friction, and you see the weakne 
of the being who lacks honesty. This quality is sincerity of pur- 
pose in all things, with no contradictions, no conflicts. Suppose 
God were dishonest, how easily the planets might crash into each 
other. See the sincerity of His handiwork in the celestial realms. 

In the present estate it is necessary that the whole 
personality and all the faculties should be exalted into this one 
commanding quality of absolute sincerity, perfect honesty. It is 
not impossible. If you use your will power, as directed in a pre- 
vious realm of this book, you may step at once into this condition. 
It is worth the strongest effort, the utmost self-denial. What a 
wonderful power is at once secured! The active, energetic, mag- 
netic, honest man or woman is a tremendous engine of influence; 
for all jarring parts of the machinery of life are harmonized, and 
all the myriad energies are working together. Then may a man 
call upon himself without fear or trembling for the besl uses oi' all 
his faculties. Now comes the true exaltation. There is hardly 
any limit to the power that may be acquired through the simple 
process we have described. The uses of the sub-conscious faculty 



580 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

may be extended as far as one wishes to give the time to this de- 
velopment. 

It is said that solitude is society if one is good company 
to himself. Among the pleasantest periods of life are those which 
have been spent in communion with the angels of thought. An 
empty nature is lonesome and restless when the hours are not 
crowded with events of outward interest; the finer minds grow 
weary with too much of such clatter. The power of magnetism 
is used on others amid the stirring scenes of life; but its richest 
fruits are found in the development of exalted sub-conscious- 
ness under the principles set forth in this estate. The plan of 
procedure has been stated over and over again, and need not be 
repeated. Ordinary mental vision accomplishes much when per- 
sistently pursued; but, with a high degree of magnetism behind it, 
the results are more than vou would be induced to believe. Add 
to these the power of an exalted soul, and the theme rises to the 
sacred domain of the superhuman, without touching the morbid 
realm of spiritualism. At the base of humanity the moods are dis- 
honest, criminal and chaotic; at the summit of life they are honest, 
pure and full of peace. In one extreme we find serfdom and ab- 
ject slavery; in the other, power and control; in one, hypnotism; 
in the other, magnetism. 

We might draw this work to a close at this place, 
were it not for the fact that all has not been said. Yet how can 
we say it? The rest is life history; not of one person but of many. 
It is not easy to ponr out the experiences of heart and mind where 
they are too sacred to be viewed with the eyes of commonplace ob- 
servation. "When we say that there is no limit to the powers that 
may be attained through the use of these principles, we speak more 
than the reader will grasp at the first, or even the second perusal of 
these words. The exalted sub-conscionsness knows all, or may know 
all if it seeks such knowledge. It is in the brain of the perfeetly 
honest man. It is a telescope that can see into other minds, into 
the dead air of blackest night, into the sealed houses, into the earth 
or sky, even far away into space. This telescope is merely the 
inner brain; it rests in obscurity because of the barrier that sep- 
arates the consciousness of the ordinary senses from its own clear 
light. Magnetism has always been employed to search out its 
secrets; but, having used hypnotic subjects, it has secured only the 
dross. Turning now to the height above, it becomes exalted and 



ttEALM OF Tin: ESTATE Of WXALTATtOti 581 

omnipotent. The trinity of power is honesty, magnetism and 
menial vision. Ii is a trinity thai every true person may possess. 

We could recite at this place the personal history of our 
students who studied these subjects privately with the author, ami 
have since unfolded some of the powers indicated; bul to repeal 
them would necessitate the publishing of statements that the 
reader would refuse to believe. It. ii better to learn for yourself 
what may be accomplished by the alliance of the three powers 
which constitute the trinity we have mentioned. We receive no 
more private pupils, for -the information is fully presented in the 
pages of this volume, and private lectures would prove an unneo 
sary expense. Among those who have reflected the highest pur- 
poses of this course of training was a clergyman of the best uni- 
versity training, a doctor of divinity of the keenest judgment as 
well as the most profound learning-. He applied in the following 
language: "I have a friend whom hitherto I considered qualified to 
advise me on subjects of extraordinary interest; but he has sur- 
prised me by a tenacious belief in the powers of the sub-conscious 
mind. I could not obtain peace with him until 1 had promised to 
investigate the matter for myself. I will come to you as an unbe- 
liever, even as one who professes to challenge your claim-.'" He 
spent two years in acquiring a magnetic temperament in the man- 
ner stated in a previous part of this volume; and then leisurely 
devoted himself to the development of mental vision. Slowly and 
by almost imperceptible degrees he opened his sub-conscious brain 
and became aware of its knowledge. At length he felt constrained 
to admit the sublime truth. "It is too sacred to be told," he said, 
and continued, "We all possess an omniscient faculty; and God 
gives us the power to get at it if we will. Perhaps the time is not 
yet ripe for such development; but when it comes, as come it must, 
there will be consummated the climax of human history/ 3 

With perfect calmness of judgment we should one and 
all accept the story of the coining change. 'The facts are impreg- 
nable. They cannot be ignored. They have convinced the best 
minds of civilized Europe and America; they are to-day carrying 
conviction everywhere before them. Not. one of these facts can 
he assailed. What are they? 1. The human mind possesses a sub- 
conscious faculty. 2. This Bub-conscious faculty is clear-seeing. 
3. Under the influence of perfect honesty, it becomes exalted. 1. 
With the guidance of mental vision it becomes intensified in its 



582 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 

clearness and strengthened in its powers. 5. Aided by magnetism 
its powers become limitless. The first step in the impending 
change will be the acquisition of the knowledge of sub-conscious- 
ness. The second step will be the transparent condition of all that 
is now hidden; and when men and women are able to read the 
minds, thoughts, purposes and motives of all other men and women, 
evil must necessarily vanish from the earth. No wrong can long 
endure in the fullness of light. 

The wonder of scientific investigators has always been 
excited by the fact that God was not known to the great majority 
of mankind when the civilization of Greece and Iiome was at its 
resplendent height, some two thousand years ago. The arts 
flourished, and literature as well as philosophy reached a degr 
of grandeur that has hardly been known since; the Indo-Europea 
hailing from the south of Central Asia, or the north of India, had 
streamed again and again into the countries where their de- 
scendants now rule the civilized world; yet a little band of Hebrews 
wandering into Egypt and out again through the wilderness, v. 
the only people that knew anything about the Creator; and to-tl 
less than one per cent, of all mankind pretend to have any fixe 1 
belief in His existence, and that only through faith, because knowl- 
edge renders faith unnecessary. The proof of God ? s existence is 
within the reach of all intelligent men and women ; but they < an- 
not discern the infinite with the finite senses. 

All ages have had their geniuses, and they have b< 
men and women of sub-conscious ability; for there all genius tat 
its root. Those who have risen to the plane of supreme greatm ss 
have added magnetism to the faculty mentioned; and Hie mi 
magnificent personages of history have claimed an intimate knowl- 
edge of God. The life of Swedenborg has already been referred 
to; it was but one of ten thousand, all greater than he: and the 
most searching criticism cannot find dishonesty or self-deception 
in the life of any of them. The one great conclusion is this: T] 
knowledge of God's existence, of the universe, of destiny, of life 
and death, and of all things now hidden, is not intended for 
the uses of the ordinary mind, nor is it attainable through that 
channel. A higher faculty is indwelling in man. Omniscience, 
like wisdom, is useless without the power of execution: and om- 
nipotence is summed up in the most kingly of all powers, Univer- 
sal Magnetism. 

THE END. /#CV k. 



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